Heartland Institute Reacts to T-Mobile/MetroPCS Merger

Published October 3, 2012

Deutsche Telekom, the German parent company of T-Mobile, announced Wednesday it will purchase telecom competitor MetroPCS and merge its assets into the company. The merger will add some 9 million cell subscribers to T-Mobile’s 32 million customers – which will nonetheless leave it in fourth place behind Sprint Nextel, Verizon, and AT&T. The merger is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division. The following statements from telecom and technology experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/731-9364. “It will be interesting to see how the FCC handles this. Reports are that they’ll approve. So, a German-owned company gets to swallow up a U.S. firm, but the FCC and Justice Department blocked an AT&T merger with T-Mobile as anti-competitive. Apparently, as long as the combined firm won’t be bigger than Sprint, it’s acceptable. Can you say ‘captured regulators’?” http://heartland.org/st-karnick S.T. Karnick Director of Research The Heartland Institute [email protected] 312/377-4000 “This attempted merger is another opportunity for the government to live up to its apparent motto: All companies are equal – but some are more equal than others.” http://heartland.org/seton-motley Seton Motley President, Less Government Policy Advisor, Telecom The Heartland Institute [email protected] 312/377-4000 “Whereas Deutsche Telekom could’ve recognized a very handsome profit by selling off T-Mobile to AT&T, the gossip and innuendo spread by the fearful anti-market old wives in the administration’s Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice effectively scotched the deal. There is no love but only convenience and possible desperation in the rebound wherein T-Mobile will be subsumed by No. 6 carrier MetroPCS as the complicated formula for joining these two companies will amount to substantially less than the $39 billion offered by AT&T. “While we should dance at the wedding of T-Mobile and MetroPCS, we should all look wincingly over our shoulders at what might have been if those two crazy kids – T-Mobile and AT&T – had been allowed to join forces without government meddling.” http://heartland.org/bruce-edward-walker Bruce Edward Walker Policy Advisor, Telecom The Heartland Institute [email protected] 312/377-4000 The [http://www.heartland.org]Heartland Institute]] is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our [http://www.heartland.org]Web site]] or call 312/377-4000.