Mr. Ergen said publicly this week that several potential lenders had emerged to help his company buy assets, including JPMorgan Chase and SoftBank. Sprint and T-Mobile, the third- and fourth-largest wireless companies, announced their latest merger plans in April 2018. The Justice Department announced its approval of the deal in July, citing the creation of a fourth and new competitor in Dish, which would buy assets from Sprint and T-Mobile to become a telecom company. “Dish is a struggling satellite TV firm with no experience running a mobile wireless business — and no current mobile wireless business,” Paula Blizzard, California’s deputy attorney general, said on a call with journalists this month. Several Democratic lawmakers, consumer groups and state attorneys general said the deal would harm consumers by reducing the number of national wireless carriers to three from four.

Source: New York Times December 19, 2019 22:51 UTC