Miscellaneous
By early February, we should know whether or not the carrier industry will be left with three key players: AT&T, Verizon, and on the horizon, a merged Sprint and T-Mobile. The merger, though it's been approved by the DOJ and the FCC, has been tied up in a lawsuit issued by state attorneys general from over a dozen states, who claim the merger would be anti-competitive for the carrier market. Why are the two companies, Sprint and T-Mobile, trying to merge, what's the context behind the lawsuit, and what are the potential long-lasting effects for the industry? On this episode of Ratified, a MarketScale show on the intersection of business and policy, Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin dives into the proposed merger of the mobile giants and the implications such a merger would have on the wider world of communication. Litwin was joined by Lawrence J. White, a Robert Kavesh Professor of Economics at the NYU Stern School of Business, and by Hugh Odom, who serves as the president of cell-tower consulting firm Vertical Consultants. Odom also served as an attorney for AT&T's Western U.S. Region for a decade. White and his extensive expertise in anti-trust economics offered his perspective on the specifics of the U.S. Department of Justice's proposed remedy, the reversal of initial pushback from the DOJ on behalf of the market and consumer through the addition of Dish as a fourth carrier, and why White views the proposed solution as insufficient. Odom then joined Litwin to offer the industry's perspective as an expert knee-deep in the telecom industry, Odom spoke to the potential positive and negative impacts of such a high-profile merger, how carriers, infrastructure and consumers will feel the effects of the partnership, and more. For more on Ratified, follow Daniel Litwin on Twitter at @VoiceOfB2B and subscribe to MarketScale Radio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.