The T-Mobile/Sprint merger may have moved the Department of Justice to contact MVNOs, as it’s now been reported that some MVNOs have been reached out to by the division of government, though it’s exactly clear what the communication has been about or how many MVNOs it has contacted. Also worth pointing out is that there has been no confirmation from the Department of Justice that it has been communicating with any of the MVNO companies. Details have not been shared about the conversations that have been had but at least one MVNO has opened up about the DOJ reaching out to it. FreedomPop, a smaller MVNO has reportedly confirmed that it was contacted this week.
Though the conversations could be about anything else, it’s suspected that communication between the DOJ and MVNOs has to do with the proposed merger between the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the U.S. – T-Mobile and Sprint respectively. This comes just one day after it was reported that the Department of Justice was taking a hard look at the merger between the two carriers and how it would affect mobile virtual network operators. MVNOs are smaller carriers and license coverage and tower use from the bigger four, with some MVNOs belonging to both T-Mobile and Sprint individually.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise as T-Mobile and Sprint collectively have control of just more than half of the prepaid wireless market, which makes it clear why the DOJ might take interest in how a merger of the two companies would affect that market and cause it to start reaching out to those various networks. What these calls to MVNOs will mean for the future of the merger is unclear, and it’s entirely possible that it may not have much of an affect at all, but it’s also being stated that communication on behalf of the DOJ’s part to these MVNOs is looked at as a good thing due to it possibly resulting in finding a resolution that could help MVNOs benefit from the merger instead of them being negatively affected.