The US House of Representatives announced plans to hold a public hearing on T-Mobile US's proposed takeover of Sprint. The hearing will be held 13 February by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, looking at the merger’s potential impact on consumers, workers and the wireless industry.
While the complete list of hearing participants is still being confirmed, T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure have both agreed to testify already, the House said.
The Congress does not have a say in merger clearance in the US, but it may call hearings to exert public pressure. This will be the first merger review hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in more than eight years—the last time the Democrats held a majority in the House of Representatives.
T-Mobile aims to complete the deal first announced in April 2018 in the first half of 2019. However, it is still awaiting clearance from the telecoms regulator FCC and the Department of Justice, which examines competition cases. The regulatory process has been held up by the government shutdown in the US, which led to a delay in the FCC's review of the merger.
The House committee chairmen noted in a joint statement that the merger would reduce the market to three from four mobile operators, while also merging the carriers with the largest numbers of low-income customers. "As the Committees with oversight of the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice, we must hold this hearing to examine the effects on important issues like jobs, costs to consumers, innovation and competition," they said. "We look forward to examining this merger from the perspective of what is in the best interest of consumers and hardworking people."
