Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every
Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most
Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more
Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. The Justice Department
Speaker 1: has approved t mobiles acquisition of Sprint, a deal that
Speaker 1: will reshape the wireless industry. Joining us is FCC Commissioner
Speaker 1: Brendan Carr. Thanks for being your commissioner, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. So this deal will combine the number
Speaker 1: three and number four wireless carriers in the country. Why
Speaker 1: won't that necessarily cut down on competition in the industry. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the news today of the Justice Department clearing
Speaker 1: this transaction, which builds on the FCC's announcement that will
Speaker 1: also be voting to approve it, it's really a great
Speaker 1: day for US leadership in wireless because what it does
Speaker 1: is it accelerate to build out of five G to
Speaker 1: of Americans. That's something that will be very difficult to
Speaker 1: get butt for this transaction to make sure that rural
Speaker 1: America gets a fair shot at this next gen technology.
Speaker 1: So no doubt it will help five G. But what
Speaker 1: about the competition in the in the wireless industry itself
Speaker 1: Outside of the five G issue. This is a great
Speaker 1: competition story as well, when you think about what it
Speaker 1: takes to compete in this new five G world for
Speaker 1: the first time, by combining Sprint and T Mobile, you'll
Speaker 1: have a company of the same scope in scale that
Speaker 1: today E, T ten Verizon already are. So we'll have
Speaker 1: a third competitor of the same scope as those two
Speaker 1: for the first time, and that I think is going
Speaker 1: to unleash a new wave of competition. It's really going
Speaker 1: to benefit consumers. There is still the obstacle of the
Speaker 1: lawsuit by a group of states that say the deal
Speaker 1: should be blocked because it would harm consumers. How big
Speaker 1: an obstacle is that, I think the far diminished obstacle
Speaker 1: in light of both the FCC's announcement in today's d
Speaker 1: o J decision. If you look at those state complaints
Speaker 1: that were filed or complaints by state A G s,
Speaker 1: they focused very narrowly on wireless service in the biggest
Speaker 1: cities in the country New York, San Francisco, and the
Speaker 1: lens through which I look at this is very different.
Speaker 1: Five G competitive services are going to get delivered to
Speaker 1: those big cities regardless of what happens with this transaction.
Speaker 1: But the question we face at the federal level is
Speaker 1: how to make sure every other community also gets a
Speaker 1: fair shot. And I think that's why this deal is
Speaker 1: in the public interest. So this envisions or requires that, uh,
Speaker 1: there is an opening for another competitor, which Dishes supposedly
Speaker 1: going to fill. It's difficult to create a new competition
Speaker 1: and a lot of the time that effort has failed.
Speaker 1: What is going to go on here that will ensure
Speaker 1: that that will not fail this time? Yeah, I've never
Speaker 1: had a specific number of wireless providers in mind as
Speaker 1: being necessary to promote competition and innovation in this space.
Speaker 1: So the next steps will be a vote at the
Speaker 1: FEC on the entire transaction, including the DISH pieces of
Speaker 1: it that were run by the Department of Justice. And
Speaker 1: when you look at the transaction as a whole, there's
Speaker 1: no doubt in my mind, and frankly the voluminous record
Speaker 1: we have at the Commission UH that it's going to
Speaker 1: be a real good win for competition in the country.
Speaker 1: How long before this goes through with with the lawsuits
Speaker 1: and with the votes that have to take place yet, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the specific timing in terms of
Speaker 1: the FCCS vote. I think our chairman has articulated that
Speaker 1: he would soon circulate an order here and that would
Speaker 1: trigger a voting process at the FEC that could take
Speaker 1: a matter of weeks to a month or so, and
Speaker 1: then the state process with their lawsuits will need to
Speaker 1: be presumably wrapped up as well. But I think the
Speaker 1: benefits that consumers are going to start to see uh
Speaker 1: is pretty quick. Within three years, it's gonna be of
Speaker 1: America covered with five GENE. Again, the difference between the
Speaker 1: build out we could get without this combined transaction and
Speaker 1: with it is a pretty big delta. Explain that. Explain
Speaker 1: Explain the difference and why this will help with the
Speaker 1: rollout of five G. Yes, So each company right now,
Speaker 1: Sprint in Team Obile have announced five G build plans,
Speaker 1: But if you look at Sprint in particular, it's a
Speaker 1: handful of builds and a handful of cities that each
Speaker 1: company right now has some interesting assets, but they're not
Speaker 1: necessarily without this deal complementary assets. So you combine certain
Speaker 1: spectrum holdings unique to each company, you combine the investment,
Speaker 1: you combine the subscribers, and then for the first time
Speaker 1: you get this ability to really accelerate the build out
Speaker 1: beyond the announced plans that each individual company otherwise had.
Speaker 1: And what about the US it's position with regard to
Speaker 1: other countries as far as five G is concerned, How
Speaker 1: well positioned are we? We've got a really good run
Speaker 1: the last two years. At the end of we really
Speaker 1: were at risk of seating US leadership in five G
Speaker 1: to China, and we've engaged in a lot of efforts
Speaker 1: of regulatory reform and this transaction is just the latest
Speaker 1: piece to flip the script on that. So today, already
Speaker 1: the US now has the largest five G build in
Speaker 1: the world. This will build on that. Internet speeds in
Speaker 1: the US are up about recently, so things are really
Speaker 1: headed in the right direction, and I think this transaction
Speaker 1: will build on that momentum. Just to take it back
Speaker 1: to the ground for a second, explain why we need
Speaker 1: five G. It's a great question. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of consumers say feel like they have one or no
Speaker 1: choice for high speed home internet. They feel trapped with
Speaker 1: purchasing uh their high speed connection from just one provider
Speaker 1: in the area. One of the good things about five
Speaker 1: G s you can now deliver wirelessly that same high speed,
Speaker 1: high quality service that before you can only do through
Speaker 1: a fiber or a cable connection. So by making this
Speaker 1: leap to five G, it's going to open up the
Speaker 1: home broadband market to significant increase in competition, which can
Speaker 1: drive down prices and make consumers feel like they have
Speaker 1: even more choices, and that's a great thing. Is there
Speaker 1: any competition for five G or is it just five
Speaker 1: G or nothing? You know, we're at this interesting point.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about convergence in telecom for decades now
Speaker 1: and we're seeing it. So wireless providers, terrestrial providers we
Speaker 1: call them, are very focused on five G. We've got
Speaker 1: this new generation of low Earth orbit satellites that are
Speaker 1: coming online. They're gonna be higher speed than existing generations.
Speaker 1: Where this new technology or a technology being improved called
Speaker 1: fixed wireless, So we're gonna have competition from a number
Speaker 1: of different technologies and that disruption is gonna be a
Speaker 1: really good thing for consumers. All Right, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. That's FCC Commissioner Brendan car Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe
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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso.
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