AT&T CEO Doesn’t See How Regulators Approve Sprint/T-Mobile Deal

AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said Tuesday he doesn’t see how regulators can approve a rumored deal by SoftBank’s Sprint Corp. to buy T-Mobile USA.

“The problem as I see it is the way the government shut our deal down. They wrote a complaint and a very specific complaint. You’re consolidating the industry from four to three national competitors,” Stephenson said Tuesday during an event at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

Three years ago, the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission rejected AT&T’s $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile. Regulators have also raised some of the same concerns about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile deal.

“If you think of Sprint and T-Mobile combining, I struggle to understand how that’s not four going to three,” Stephenson said.

AT&T’s CEO is hardly the first person to point this out, but he comes at this issue from a slightly more personal angle, since his company’s failure to convince regulators to approved the T-Mobile deal resulted in AT&T paying a $4 billion termination fee when the acquisition fell apart.

Despite all the naysayers, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son seems prepared to move forward with a proposal anyway, probably this summer.

AT&T is currently trying to convince regulators to approve its $67 billion deal to acquire satellite company DirecTV. Stephenson repeated some of his previous statements about why AT&T wants to buy the satellite TV company, namely that it will give the wireless giant a better position to acquire content.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via