Oregon Joins States’ Antitrust Suit to Bar T-Mobile Sprint Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Oregon is joining the fight to block T-Mobile US Inc.’s acquisition of Sprint Corp., adding another headwind to the deal less than a month after it was cleared by the U.S. antitrust regulator.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, is joining the antitrust suit being led by her counterparts in California and New York, according to a statement issued Monday. Oregon is the 15th state to join the suit.

“If left unchallenged, the current plan will result in reduced access to affordable wireless service in Oregon -- and higher prices,” Rosenblum said in the statement. “Neither is acceptable.”

The lawsuit, filed in June by more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia, had involved only Democratic attorneys general until Texas joined on Aug. 1.

The beefed-up coalition gives a boost to the states’ lawsuit after T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to sell assets to Dish Network Corp. to win approval from the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division. The deal can’t close until the state lawsuit is resolved.

T-Mobile and Sprint have promised to deploy a 5G network that would cover 97% of the U.S. population within three years and 99% within six years, reshaping the industry.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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