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T-Mobile-Sprint $26.5B merger passes more regulatory hurdles

By Nicholas Sakelaris
T-Mobile could be merging with Sprint in a $26.5 billion deal. Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI
T-Mobile could be merging with Sprint in a $26.5 billion deal. Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint has cleared another hurdle but concerns about both companies' ties to Chinese telecommunications manufacturer Huawei still linger.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense all approved the deal Monday.

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Supporters of the deal say the combined company will have 100 million customers, meaning it can go toe-to-toe with AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said he would lower prices to attract new customers.

The final hurdle will be approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which rejected the merger in 2014. The merger would essentially combine the number three and number four wireless carriers in the United States into one, giving U.S. customers just three choices.

Regulators rejected AT&T's $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile in 2011, saying more competitors are needed.

Sprint and T-Mobile {link:renewed merger talks: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/business/dealbook/sprint-tmobile-merger-regulatory-approval.html?module=inline" target="_blank"} with the hope that new FCC chairman Ajit Pai, appointed by President Donald Trump, will have a different opinion on the merger.

Complicating matters, the parent companies of T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, and Sprint, SoftBank in Japan, are Huawei customers. Huawei has been accused of espionage by the United States and the telecommunication companies' ties to the Chinese company could be the deciding factor on the merger's final approval. The parent companies could be reconsidering their relationship with Huawei as a result.

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