A judge (a Bill Clinton appointee) resists political pressure and approves the T-Mobile merger

See Sprinting to Faster 5G. WSJ editorial. Excerpt:

"Thirteen Democratic state attorneys general sued anyway. They argued based on little evidence that the new T-Mobile would reduce wireless competition and raise prices. Judge Marrero, a Bill Clinton appointee, systematically dismantled their arguments in a 173-page clinical examination of the merger.

While Verizon and AT&T have high quality networks, he notes (with some understatement) that neither is “distinguished for innovation of beneficial customer services” and they have frequently reacted to “innovations first made by T-Mobile or Sprint.” But Sprint has been bleeding customers and cash with $37 billion in debt and would struggle to survive as an independent company.

Cable companies and Dish declined to rescue Sprint. Yet T-Mobile CEO John Legere figured that Sprint's under-utilized mid-band spectrum could complement T-Mobile’s overloaded low-band and high-band waves. Combining could provide better coverage at a lower cost to more customers.

The merger will “multiply the combined network’s capacity because of a technological innovation referred to as ‘carrier aggregation,’” the judge finds, and it has already prompted AT&T and Verizon to deploy 5G services across a broader spectrum. He adds: “New T-Mobile would be taking a very significant risk by raising prices or slowing its competitive pace because consumers in the market still generally believe that AT&T and Verizon have superior quality network.”"