AAI Joins Coalition of 14 Advocacy Organizations to Call on New Congress to Hold House Committee Hearings on the Proposed T-Mobile-Sprint Merger

November 28, 2018

Intellectual Property , Technology , Mergers

In a letter to Representatives Nadler and Pallone, AAI joined with other advocacy groups in a call for hearings on the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. In June of 2018, the AAI rolled out an analysis of the likely anticompetitive effects of a T-Mobile-Sprint merger. And in August of 2018, the AAI filed a Petition to Deny the proposed merger with the Federal Communications Commission. AAI President Diana Moss said, in support of House hearings, “A Sprint-T-Mobile deal would complete the rollup of the national U.S. wireless market, creating the “Big 3” with strong incentives to collude rather than compete. Consumers and workers have a right to competition.” The full press release is below and the letter can be found here.

14 Organizations Call for New Congress to Hold House Committee Hearings on Proposed T-Mobile/Sprint Merger

Letter to Reps. Nadler and Pallone Calls for House Judiciary Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee Hearings on Proposed T-Mobile/Sprint Merger

Washington, DC – A new letter from fourteen organizations calls on Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) to hold hearings during the first quarter of 2019 regarding the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The letter recipients are current Ranking Members, and likely incoming Chairmen, of the House Judiciary and House Energy and Commerce Committees in the next Congress.

The letter, available in full below, calls for hearings on the proposed merger during the first quarter of 2019 “to examine the single largest pending telecommunications merger right now, and one of the largest in the nation’s history” as an “excellent first step to implementing your vision for stronger antitrust enforcement, protecting consumers, promoting competition, and standing up for American workers.”

The letter is signed by the American Antitrust Institute; Center for Media Justice; Common Cause; Communications Workers of America; Consumer Reports; Fight for the Future; Free Press Action; The Greenlining Institute; National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low income clients; New America’s Open Technology Institute; Open Markets Institute; Public Knowledge; Rural Wireless Association; and Writers Guild of America West.