T-Mobile, Sprint chiefs to testify before Senate panel on proposed merger

The heads of T-Mobile and Sprint will testify before a Senate panel on Wednesday to make the case for their proposed $26 billion merger.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Marcelo Claure, the executive chairman of Sprint, were announced on Monday as witnesses for a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing on the deal.

The proposed merger has already generated some opposition from Democratic lawmakers and consumer groups. Critics say that the deal, which would reduce the number of national wireless carriers to just three, would drive down competition in an already highly concentrated market.

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The two companies filed for approval with the Federal Communications Commission last week. Both the FCC and the Justice Department will need to sign off on the merger.

T-Mobile and Sprint have pitched the deal as essential for the two companies to build a 5G wireless network that will rival those of AT&T and Verizon. They argue that the benefits of the network would outweigh any antitrust concerns critics have posed about the deal.

“We cannot relinquish our leadership here and the New T-Mobile will deliver on these capabilities within the first couple of years of bringing these two companies together,” Legere wrote in a blog post last week. “As a country we cannot afford to miss this opportunity and the New T-Mobile is fully prepared to do our part, and to do it fast!”