Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every day we bring you insight and analysis into the most important legal news of the day. You can find more episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. The Justice Department has approved t mobiles acquisition of Sprint, a deal that will reshape the wireless industry. Joining us is FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. Thanks for being your commissioner, Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it. So this deal will combine the number three and number four wireless carriers in the country. Why won't that necessarily cut down on competition in the industry. Well, I think the news today of the Justice Department clearing this transaction, which builds on the FCC's announcement that will also be voting to approve it, it's really a great day for US leadership in wireless because what it does is it accelerate to build out of five G to
of Americans. That's something that will be very difficult to get butt for this transaction to make sure that rural America gets a fair shot at this next gen technology. So no doubt it will help five G. But what about the competition in the in the wireless industry itself
Outside of the five G issue. This is a great competition story as well, when you think about what it takes to compete in this new five G world for the first time, by combining Sprint and T Mobile, you'll have a company of the same scope in scale that today E, T ten Verizon already are. So we'll have a third competitor of the same scope as those two for the first time, and that I think is going to unleash a new wave of competition. It's really going
to benefit consumers. There is still the obstacle of the lawsuit by a group of states that say the deal should be blocked because it would harm consumers. How big an obstacle is that, I think the far diminished obstacle in light of both the FCC's announcement in today's d
o J decision. If you look at those state complaints that were filed or complaints by state A G s, they focused very narrowly on wireless service in the biggest cities in the country New York, San Francisco, and the lens through which I look at this is very different. Five G competitive services are going to get delivered to those big cities regardless of what happens with this transaction. But the question we face at the federal level is how to make sure every other community also gets a
fair shot. And I think that's why this deal is in the public interest. So this envisions or requires that, uh, there is an opening for another competitor, which Dishes supposedly going to fill. It's difficult to create a new competition and a lot of the time that effort has failed. What is going to go on here that will ensure
that that will not fail this time? Yeah, I've never had a specific number of wireless providers in mind as being necessary to promote competition and innovation in this space. So the next steps will be a vote at the FEC on the entire transaction, including the DISH pieces of
it that were run by the Department of Justice. And when you look at the transaction as a whole, there's no doubt in my mind, and frankly the voluminous record we have at the Commission UH that it's going to be a real good win for competition in the country. How long before this goes through with with the lawsuits and with the votes that have to take place yet, Yeah, I don't know what the specific timing in terms of
the FCCS vote. I think our chairman has articulated that he would soon circulate an order here and that would trigger a voting process at the FEC that could take a matter of weeks to a month or so, and then the state process with their lawsuits will need to be presumably wrapped up as well. But I think the benefits that consumers are going to start to see uh is pretty quick. Within three years, it's gonna be of
America covered with five GENE. Again, the difference between the build out we could get without this combined transaction and
with it is a pretty big delta. Explain that. Explain Explain the difference and why this will help with the rollout of five G. Yes, So each company right now, Sprint in Team Obile have announced five G build plans, But if you look at Sprint in particular, it's a handful of builds and a handful of cities that each company right now has some interesting assets, but they're not
necessarily without this deal complementary assets. So you combine certain spectrum holdings unique to each company, you combine the investment, you combine the subscribers, and then for the first time you get this ability to really accelerate the build out beyond the announced plans that each individual company otherwise had. And what about the US it's position with regard to other countries as far as five G is concerned, How well positioned are we? We've got a really good run
the last two years. At the end of we really were at risk of seating US leadership in five G to China, and we've engaged in a lot of efforts of regulatory reform and this transaction is just the latest piece to flip the script on that. So today, already the US now has the largest five G build in the world. This will build on that. Internet speeds in the US are up about recently, so things are really headed in the right direction, and I think this transaction
will build on that momentum. Just to take it back to the ground for a second, explain why we need five G. It's a great question. You know, a lot of consumers say feel like they have one or no choice for high speed home internet. They feel trapped with purchasing uh their high speed connection from just one provider in the area. One of the good things about five G s you can now deliver wirelessly that same high speed, high quality service that before you can only do through
a fiber or a cable connection. So by making this leap to five G, it's going to open up the home broadband market to significant increase in competition, which can drive down prices and make consumers feel like they have even more choices, and that's a great thing. Is there any competition for five G or is it just five G or nothing? You know, we're at this interesting point. We've been talking about convergence in telecom for decades now
and we're seeing it. So wireless providers, terrestrial providers we call them, are very focused on five G. We've got this new generation of low Earth orbit satellites that are coming online. They're gonna be higher speed than existing generations. Where this new technology or a technology being improved called fixed wireless, So we're gonna have competition from a number of different technologies and that disruption is gonna be a really good thing for consumers. All Right, thank you so
much for joining us. That's FCC Commissioner Brendan car Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple pod Cast, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg. M M