T-Mobile, Sprint Deal Approval Delayed by Government Shutdown

The ongoing U.S. government shutdown is delaying an important regulatory approval necessary for T-Mobile US to close on its $26 billion acquisition of rival Sprint. That deal has been pressed by both operators as necessary for the combined entity to provide a robust 5G competitor to market heavyweights Verizon and AT&T.The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will shut down all non-essential activities later today due to the government shutdown. Those non-essential activities include its informal 180-day review process of telecom-related transactions.The T-Mobile/Sprint deal currently sits at day 85 of that review process, meaning the FCC can take up to 95 more days to review the proposal. That review process involves looking at whether the proposed deal would harm competition in the marketplace or if a proposal needs to be altered to accommodate those concerns.The FCC started its review of the deal on June 18, 2018. It then paused the review process after 55 days on Sept. 11, after T-Mobile and Sprint submitted new documents on the deal. The review process started back up again on Dec. 4.T-Mobile has said it expects the deal to be approved by mid-2019. The carriers did not respond by press time to questions regarding any potential impact from the current government shutdown on that timeline. The deal last month received approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). It also was decreed as not raising national security, law enforcement, or public safety concerns by the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense.