Sources tell FOX Business’s Charlie Gasparino that the Dish boss has been seen using the Boost purchase renegotiation to get better terms on the sale of Spectrum.
T-Mobile asked California on Tuesday to drop the proposed requirement that the company add 1,000 jobs in exchange for state approval of its recent $ 26 billion merger with Sprint.
The second largest wireless network argued in a petition that the California Public Utilities Commission does not actually have the legal authority to order the creation of new jobs, and even if it did, it would not be reasonable to expect T-Mobile to do so in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The current economic crisis makes imposing a mandate to create additional jobs unfeasible and unjustified,” writes T-Mobile in the presentation. “Such material change in circumstances clearly warrants modification of the decision.”
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The CPUC has also required T-Mobile to provide average network speeds of 300 megabits per second to 93 percent of California by 2024. T-Mobile told the CPUC that the target date should actually be pushed back to 2026.
“The date of 2024 was a proxy, used at the beginning of the regulatory approval process in 2018, for the period ending six years after the shutdown, which occurred in 2020,” a T-Mobile spokesperson explained to FOX Business.
The CPUC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘MOBILE DATA SERVICE PROBLEM’ CAUSE OF ‘ROAD PROBLEM’
T-Mobile said Tuesday that it is still committed to having the same number of T-Mobile employees in California within three years as at this time.
“Our goal is to ensure that the final CPUC Decision aligns with what was presented in our proceeding and clearly articulates the benefits that this merger will bring to Californians,” the company said in a statement to FOX Business. “We appreciate the willingness of Commission staff and Commissioners to work with us to resolve our concerns and pending clarifications.”
T-Mobile has had a difficult couple of months since its merger with Sprint.
The company laid off hundreds of Sprint employees last week. There was also a widespread outage that affected millions of customers that lasted approximately 12 hours last week. The company explained that it was caused by a “fiber circuit leased from an outside provider.” Federal Communications President Ajit Pai said he is initiating an investigation into the cut.
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