Sprint/T-Mobile Merger

On behalf of multiple cable companies in the merger between the mobile network operators (MNOs) T-Mobile and Sprint, Brattle analyzed cable companies’ competitive role in two forms: their present form – as limited resellers of MNOs’ products – and in a world where they have full infrastructure mobile virtual network operator (iMVNO) capabilities, which would make them stronger competitors to the MNOs. Brattle examined the effects of the merger by explicitly incorporating cable companies, in their dual role as input customers of MNOs for wireless services and retail competitors to MNOs, into the T-Mobile experts’ structural simulation model. By extending the parties’ simulation model to include retail competition from cable companies as well as the wholesale negotiation between MNOs and cable companies to acquire iMVNO access, we demonstrated that the merger’s adverse effect on competition from cable companies magnifies the loss in consumer welfare from the merger.