DOJ Shuts Down Investigation on T-Mobile-UScellular Merger

The decision came two days after T-Mobile said it was ceasing all DEI practices at the company.

The T-Mobile logo on a storefront in Boston, Mass. Michael Dwyer/AP

The Department of Justice (DOJ) no longer opposes the merger of T-Mobile and UScellular and has closed its investigation into the matter, the department said in a July 10 statement.

In May last year, the companies had announced an agreement in which T-Mobile would acquire “substantially all of UScellular’s wireless operations” in a $4.4 billion deal, T-Mobile said in a May 28, 2024, statement. The transaction was set to be completed by mid-2025, provided regulatory conditions and other requirements were met.

The DOJ investigated the matter, looking at how it would affect customers and the potential impact of consolidation in the wireless spectrum.

“After a thorough investigation, the Antitrust Division determined prudentially not to seek an injunction to prevent T-Mobile from closing on its proposed acquisition of UScellular,” Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater from the DOJ’s antitrust division said.

UScellular focuses on rural customers, offering plans and other services that the “Big 3” telecommunications companies—Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile—did not offer and which its customers valued, Slater said.

However, the limited regional footprint and unique structural limitations within which UScellular functions led to the company being unable to “keep up with the escalating cost of capital investments in technology required to compete vigorously in the relevant market,” he added.

If this situation continues, it would lead to a “slow degradation” in network quality for UScellular subscribers, according to Slater.

T-Mobile’s commitment to integrate the two networks to ensure faster data speeds benefits UScellular users, he said.

“Accordingly, the department concluded the loss of the local offerings that UScellular customers value was outweighed by the immediate improvements in network quality promised by this proposed transaction,” Slater said.

The DOJ’s decision came two days after T-Mobile sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr on July 8, notifying that the company has officially scrapped its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

The company remains “fully committed to ensuring that T-Mobile does not have any policies or practices that enable invidious discrimination, whether in fulfillment of DEI or any other purpose,” the letter said, adding the erasure of DEI policies was “not just in name but in substance.”

T-Mobile will no longer have individual or team roles focused on DEI and is removing references to DEI from its websites and employee training materials, it added.

In a July 9 post on social media platform X, Carr said T-Mobile’s decision was “another good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest.”

In a July 10 X post responding to T-Mobile ditching DEI, Carr credited President Donald Trump for “restoring common sense and racking up wins.” Trump has issued executive orders aimed at ending DEI programs and policies, including a Jan. 20 presidential action calling on “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”

Meanwhile, Slater also raised concerns about consolidation in the wireless spectrum, according to the July 10 DOJ statement. The big three telecoms, which account for more than 90 percent of mobile subscriptions in the United States, also control more than 80 percent of the country’s mobile wireless spectrum, he said.

Mergers in the telecom market can increase coordination among the major players, resulting in higher prices, fewer choices, and reduced quality for customers, Slater said.

The DOJ analyzed the T-Mobile–UScellular merger as well as two other deals based on these issues and concluded they “would not result in sufficient harm to competition to warrant an enforcement action,” he added.