On May 2, UScellular announced that it lost about 38,000 wireless post-paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2025 – double the subscriber losses it incurred in the last quarter of 2024. Right now, UScellular is a party to a proposed transaction to transfer about 30% of its spectrum licenses as well as its wireless operations and subscribers to T-Mobile. It is not unexpected for a firm selling assets (or merging with a larger firm) to experience hardships in the marketplace during the pendency of transaction review proceedings by government agencies such as the FCC. Yet such an occurrence is a compelling reason for the Commission to act quickly in completing its review of the T-Mobile/UScellular transaction.
Today, May 6, is day 188 on the FCC's informal 180-day "shot clock" for reviewing the T-Mobile/UScellular transaction. In other words, the Commission already has exceeded the period that the agency has established as its review timeline goal. Moreover, the Justice Department-led Team Telecom review of T-Mobile/UScellular – with a standard review period of up to 120 days – didn't even kick off until April 10. Thus, further review proceeding delays by both the FCC and Team Telecom threaten to damage UScellular by keeping it in regulatory limbo. Both reviews must be brought to a speedy conclusion.
As explained in comments filed in January 2025 by the Free State Foundation in January – and encapsulated and a March 31 blog post by Senior Fellow Andrew Long – the T-Mobile/UScellular transaction appears to be both pro-competitive and pro-consumer. The record in the proceeding strongly indicates wireless consumers, including existing UScellular subscribers, would benefit from the approval of the transaction. Also, arguments raised in the proceeding by parties opposing T-Mobile/UScellular all but entirely involve matters that are extraneous to the deal.
Moreover, at a surface level, it is highly unlikely that T-Mobile's acquisition of commercial spectrum licenses, wireless operations, and subscribers would negatively impact U.S. national security. Certainly, no lengthy Team Telecom review should be needed to reach a conclusion.
The fact that the Biden Administration moved slowly at the commencement of the T Mobile/UScellular review proceeding is all the more reason for the Trump Administration to move with dispatch in considering the transaction.
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