Congress Should Not Use COVID-19 Recovery Money to Fund T-Mobile's Merger Commitments

CWA and other advocacy groups sent a letter this week calling on Congress to ensure that T-Mobile does not receive COVID-19 recovery funding to meet the commitments it agreed to when it sought approval of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger from federal and state regulators. The letter was signed by New America's Open Technology Institute, the Rural Wireless Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, the American Economic Liberties Project, and Free Press Action.

"Congress must hold the new T-Mobile accountable for the promises it made to ram the merger through the approval process," said CWA Director of Government Affairs Dan Mauer. "T-Mobile promised that the merger would give the company the resources to build out 5G to nearly the entire U.S. population, including rural areas. COVID-19 recovery funds should be used to address the crisis caused by the pandemic, not as a corporate handout to help the new T-Mobile fulfill the promises the company was eager to make to push this merger through."