DOJ Approves T-Mobile’s Latest Merger Despite Admitting It’s Terrible For Consumers And Competition
from the merge-ALL-the-things! dept
One of the bigger Trump election season lies was that Trump 2.0 would be “serious about antitrust,” and protect blue collar Americans from corporate predation. You’d have to be a turnip to not see that was an aggressive lie, pushed by a lot of folks (even supposed antitrust buster Matt Stoller), who seemed hellbent on insisting that fascists and authoritarians are not that different from folks like Lina Khan.
As it turns out, that was all bullshit. Trump’s second term has taken an absolute hatchet to federal regulatory autonomy via court ruling, executive order, or captured regulators. His “antitrust enforcers” make companies grovel for merger approval by promising to be more racist and sexist, or pledging to take a giant steaming dump on U.S. journalism and the First Amendment (waves at CBS).
There are still some actual populists buried within the Trump administration who might care about this stuff, but corruption ensures they have no actual power. For example, the Trump FCC and DOJ just rubber stamped T-Mobile’s $5 billion acquisition of most of U.S. Cellular, all-but guaranteeing the U.S. wireless industry gets even more consolidated, and less competitive.
Even the Trump DOJ’s approval statement clearly acknowledges that the added consolidation will be harmful:
“Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, a Trump nominee who was confirmed by the Senate in March, said in a 900-word statement that the deal and two related transactions “will consolidate yet more spectrum in the Big 3’s oligopoly, which controls more than 80 percent of the mobile wireless spectrum in the country.” She said the top three carriers—T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon—control more than 90 percent of the mobile subscriptions in the United States.”
You might recall that the appointment of Slater to the DOJ antitrust division was heralded as a super important sign that Trump was going to be serious about antitrust, according to statements made by guys like Matt Stoller not six months ago:
“This is a very powerful statement that Trump wants to take on Big Tech,” wrote Matt Stoller of Trump’s pick of Slater in a post on X. Stoller, who runs an anti-monopoly podcast and is a fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, added in his newsletter, “while it won’t be like Joe Biden’s, it seems [Trump] is going to continue some significant parts of the anti-monopoly revival.“
In this case, U.S. Cellular’s spectrum is being carved up between the three major U.S. wireless companies, with T-Mobile getting the lion’s share. Slater’s own DOJ statement clearly indicates the DOJ investigation into the deal found ample things to be worried about:
“The investigation nevertheless raised concerns about competition in the relevant markets for mobile wireless services and the availability of wireless spectrum needed to fuel competition and entry.”
Yet when push comes to shove, Slater either lacks the courage or the ability to actually stop additional mergers in U.S. telecom, which is the poster child for the very real-world harms of such mindless consolidation. As usual, the deal is dressed up as “necessary” to save the acquired company from irrelevance; the same lie the first Trump admin used to approve the T-Mobile Sprint merger.
The result of that deal was the U.S. wireless market immediately stopping all price competition among the remaining three major providers. There’s a lot of effort put into pretending that the U.S. wireless market is vibrant and competitive, but it only takes a trip overseas — where 5G is faster and prices are lower — to realize that the whole thing is an elaborate con that’s been normalized.
With the other hand, the Trump administration has lobotomized all regulatory authority, ensuring that it’s impossible to hold wireless giants accountable for ripping customers off or violating their privacy. This is the grand Trump 2.0 antitrust renaissance we were promised; much more of the same cronyism and corruption, while supposed antitrust pseudo-populist enablers stand around with a silly look on their face.
MAGA authoritarians aren’t real populists. They’re not serious about anything beyond their own wealth, power, and bigotry. Trump authoritarianism is the textbook definition of corruption, any deal with the regime is destined to go badly for people who live in the real world, and any official or policy expert who couldn’t see all of this coming a mile away should never be taken seriously again.
Filed Under: 5g, antitrust, authoritarian, competition, consolidation, doj, fcc, gail slater, matt stoller, mobile, telecom, wireless
Comments on “DOJ Approves T-Mobile’s Latest Merger Despite Admitting It’s Terrible For Consumers And Competition”
Come on, we all know that Trump Mobile will be the 4th one, The Biggest Player, The Most America Loved, the Gran Número Uno, The Revolution!
He’ll finally make America Telco Great Again, for sure!
Really curious how long until we’re all subscribers of AT&T-Mobizon…
There’s a lot of insanely rich people behind this and other efforts around the globe to secure monopolies. Wealth concentration is a cancer that will destroy everything to maintain itself.
I keep wondering if there is any way out this because that same money is used to influence voters and, if unsuccessful, outright buy elected politicians and regulators. The result is more poverty, more expensive everything (from services to goods) and more deaths (see US healthcare system).
Re:
One might reply and give one example – France, 1787. Was a bit messy, though.
Perhaps more helpful advice might be the aphorism “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”
Well duh!
The republican wet dream is to work children to death in the mines so they have more money for hanging out with folks like epstein.
Hey. I don’t really like turnips, but I’m pretty sure they are much better for you than being around those who can’t see the lie.
Think about it
IF’ trump could Fix Any of this, HE would Start his Own Companies and Challenge the Old School Corps.
Make Tons of money as a competitor and his kids can have it After.
And for the youngsters that dont get it. There Used to be only a Few Corps doing phone service, and then Wireless hit the road, AND knew what would happen, and Split their Corps into Lots of Smaller Business’s To look Like there was Competition. The list was Long of all the smaller companies, and ROAMING CHARGES, as you could not Call around OUTSIDE your Roaming AREA, or get added charges. After a While they Got all the States and the fed to look the other way and NOT CARE, as money in the pocket ALWAYS works, and JUST charge more to the consumer. They started Sucking up the smaller ones they HAD created.
Like a Card Game and picking up all the cards to see WHO has the most money, and Then Start buying Back and Forth to Confuse Everyone and the IRS.
“antitrust buster Matt Stoller”, heh. What an inadvertently apt description.
“There are still some actual populists buried within the Trump administration who might care about this stuff”
Impossible, because there is no Trump administration: there is only the Trump regime.