T-Mobile’s Back in the News — This Time Trying to Stop a Merger

Consider this the latest in what will likely be a series of back-and-forth battles as mobile companies duke it out to build the infrastructure mobile data users need.

By Jamilah King Feb 23, 2012

Just months after the Department of Justice help thwart its plans to merge with AT&T and form the nation’s largest mobile phone company, T-Mobile recently urged the Federal Communications Commission to stop Verizon’s deal to acquire new airwave licenses from cable companies.

Though AT&T took tons of flack for its merger bid, all this commotion signals just now desperate wireless companies are to get more spectrum — the once publicly-owned, government-controlled airwaves that have been around for years and help fuel our new handheld gadgets. As more and more people clamor to get new smartphones and gadgets, the companies that provide those services — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, MetroPCS, to name the big ones — are beginning to get overwhelmed. To put it simply, the U.S. just doesn’t have the infrastructure to keep up with growing demand. All this talk of mergers is industry’s solution to that nagging problem.