California Defines Scope of Hearings on T-Mobile/Sprint Merger 

The California PUC has scheduled evidentiary hearings on December 5 and 6, 2019 regarding the proposed Sprint /T-Mobile transaction that is before the PUC.  The PUC is now seeking to determine what impact new agreements between Sprint, T-Mobile, and Dish Networks (DISH) will have on the proposed merger.  Specifically, the “change in the terms of the proposed merger that has occurred over the past months is the addition of DISH as a proposed fourth facilities-based wireless carrier, replacing Sprint.”     

The hearings will address the following topics: 

1. Does the agreement with DISH substantially alleviate any competitive harms of the proposed merger?  
2. How does the agreement with DISH affect customer service, consumer protections and privacy rights of California consumers?  
3. How does the agreement with DISH affect the continued availability of low-cost plans?  
4. What will happen to pre-paid customers with incompatible handsets when they are divested to DISH?  
5. Are any LifeLine customers at risk of losing their subsidies if the proposed merger is consummated? 
   
   

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The Regulatory Mix Today:  California Defines Scope of Hearings on T-Mobile/Sprint Merger, FCC’s Rosenworcel Releases Podcast

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FCC’s Rosenworcel Releases Podcast 

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel announced the release of a new episode of her podcast, Broadband Conversations, featuring Massachusetts Congresswoman Lori Trahan.  Before becoming a member of Congress, Trahan was the only female executive of a technology company and later cofounded her own consulting business.  Rosenworcel said: “Whether our phones are in our palms or in our pockets, they are a valuable tool for commerce and our ever-connected lives. But more than a year ago, we learned that for just a few hundred dollars, shady middlemen could buy consumers’ geolocation data.  The sale of this information is a threat to our personal safety and our national security.  It puts anyone with a wireless device at risk. To date, the FCC has been silent on its investigation into this issue.  Listeners of this episode will hear Congresswoman Trahan discuss how she has been fighting to make sure that the FCC updates Congress on its work to resolve this problem.  Consumers didn’t sign up for this type of invasion into their privacy and they deserve to know what happened and what can be done to ensure it never happens again.” 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.