New York Attorney General Letitia James and her Connecticut counterpart William Tong are part of a 10-state coalition filing a lawsuit seeking to halt the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint.
T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. are the nation”™s third- and fourth-largest mobile wireless networks. The complaint by the attorneys general, which was filed in New York federal court, insisted that the union of the mobile network providers would result in increased prices on cellphone services while diminishing the competition in that sector.
“When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn”™t always better,” said James, who is leading the lawsuit in conjunction with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “The T-Mobile and Sprint merger would not only cause irreparable harm to mobile subscribers nationwide by cutting access to affordable, reliable wireless service for millions of Americans, but would particularly affect lower-income and minority communities here in New York and in urban areas across the country. That”™s why we are going to court to stop this merger and protect our consumers, because this is exactly the sort of consumer-harming, job-killing megamerger our antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”
Tong added that the “the average American household still spends over $1,000 a year on wireless service ”“ way too much. Cell phones are not a luxury or convenience, they are a necessity of modern life for every Connecticut family. We need more competition in the market, not less. Federal antitrust law prohibits mergers that substantially lessen competition, and this proposed merger should be blocked.”
