Some Seek 'Rigorous' Sprint/T-Mobile Review at CPUC
The California Public Utilities Commission should thoroughly review T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint and get commitments from the companies, said the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) and two consumer groups in protest filings last week. The CPUC “must rigorously investigate the…
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effects on California's voice and broadband markets,” including if the deal will hurt competition and raises antitrust concerns, ORA said in docket A.18-07-011. The application fails to identify benefits specific to California or to Sprint's wireline wholesale and enterprise customers, ORA said. CPUC should “conduct a detailed analysis of the entire transaction, including both wireless and wireline entities,” urged The Utility Reform Network and the Greenlining Institute. “Although Joint Applicants attempt to argue that two of the biggest facilities-based, national wireless carriers ... do not meet the intrastate revenue thresholds or are not otherwise required to submit to a public interest review, the Commission should use the Section 854 (b) and (c) criteria to determine if the transaction is adverse to the public interest or might require certain conditions to ‘protect and promote the public interest.’” Applicants should show how the deal is in the public interest, particularly for low-income, minority and rural customers, and how it will affect public safety and emergency communications, the consumer groups said. Low-income consumers are more likely to use Sprint or T-Mobile than AT&T or Verizon, and the deal could reduce Lifeline competition, they said. Sprint has a good record on supplier diversity, but T-Mobile doesn’t, they said. Sprint and T-Mobile, which didn’t comment Monday, are seeking CPUC OK for T-Mobile to take Sprint's wireline business and to add its name to Sprint's California wireless registration. "It is bold indeed to say that reducing the number of competitors makes a market more competitive," Tellus Venture Associates President Stephen Blum blogged Monday. If Sprint and T-Mobile can't make that case "with hard evidence -- as opposed to the rhetoric they’ve relied on so far -- then the CPUC should block the merger," said the telecom consultant for local governments.