Your Big Red Car is not one to praise regulation or regulators. No surprise there, eh?

Your BRC, in fact, is guilty of railing against regulation. Fair play.

Today, I rise to praise the outcome of a regulatory action — the approval of the T-Mobile – Sprint merger that leaves the country with three wireless providers of some significant substance. This was good regulation with a good result on the eve of 5G, creating three worthy competitors for your wireless dollar. Bravo.

The big three will serve 95% of the market as follows:

AT&T serves 100,000,000 customers.

Verizon serves 100,000,000 customers

The new T-Mobile/Sprint serves 90,000,000 customers.

The regulators whispered in T-Mobile’s ear that they would look more favorably on the transaction if T-Mobile would jettison Sprint’s pre-paid wireless business: Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Sprint Prepaid. [All sold to Dish Network thereby making it the #4 competitor in wireless.]

T-Mobile is going to pitchfork the Sprint brand over time, and open five more customer service centers.

T-Mobile is the company that took on both AT&T and Verizon with audacious marketing campaigns that deep sixed two year contracts, did away with termination fees, and provided free international roaming.

They took a fair number of customers from their competitors and then set their sights on merging #3 T-Mobile and #4 Sprint.

I cannot help but suggest this increases competition. The regulators have left the USA with three good carriers on the eve of the explosion of 5G. Bravo.

Well played, regulators.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car and I use AT&T.