The Rural Wireless Association, Inc. (RWA ) and NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA) have filed an Informal Request for Commission Action requesting that the FCC issue a public notice seeking additional comment on the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint in light of the Stipulation and Order and proposed Final Judgment filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and five supporting states late last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Those DOJ filings bring a third party – Dish Network – into the proposed merger agreement between two wireless carriers. On the same day that the government’s consent decree was filed, Dish submitted an ex parte with the FCC seeking, among other things, an extension of construction deadlines for many of its FCC licenses. In its request to the FCC, RWA and NTCA assert that the revised T-Mobile/Sprint/Dish deal is fundamentally different from the deal that was first proposed by T-Mobile/Sprint and that various commitments made by Dish in its FCC letter and in the court documents raise numerous questions about whether the revised transaction is in the public interest.
