Sprint Joins the Rural Carriers Association to Help Fight AT&T’s T-Mobile Acquisition
Sprint and Dan Hesse are continuing to show that they won’t lie down in AT&T’s bid to buy T-Mobile. The latest move sees the nation’s #3 carrier joining the Rural Carriers Association, a union consisting of the nation’s less-influential carriers who fight to make sure they can run business as usual. (Dozens of the members make up the smaller regional carriers you often don’t hear about.)
“The competitive carriers who make up the RCA are engines of innovation in the wireless industry,” says Sprint’s Vice President of Government Affairs Vonya McCann. “At Sprint, we have many issues of mutual concern with RCA members and we look forward to advocating for policies that promote competition and a level playing field across the wireless industry.”
It’s one of just a handful of moves Sprint can make to help sway the FCC to not grant approval of the acquisition. One must ask, though: is it enough? Should Sprint have been working toward this before AT&T and T-Mobile announced their intentions or will they be S.O.L. for sleeping at the wheel waiting for Deutsche Telekom to “come around” and let Sprint buy T-Mobile instead?
Sprint had to know that T-Mobile was in trouble – just as they are now – and they had to know that Deutsche Telekom would be looking at options other than Sprint after seemingly being denied interest in any deal. (It was long rumored that Sprint and DT were in talks, but nothing was ever confirmed.) One thing’s for sure – Sprint has their work cut out for them and a new marketing campaign alone won’t help them. (Just as it didn’t help T-Mobile much.) [via IntoMobile]