It looks like FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has the votes to approve the T-Mobile-Sprint deal.
Pai announced Monday (May 20) that he would be circulating an order, with a number of conditions and one spin-off, to approve the T-Mobile-Sprint deal. Soon after, Republican commissioner Brendan Carr said he, too, would be voting for it.
FCC officials speaking on background said the companies offered the new conditions and divestiture Monday and it would have been odd not to comment on them.
Now the third vote he needs, in this case in the form of third Republican Michael O'Rielly, appears to be his as well.
O'Rielly tweeted the following Monday afternoon:
[embed]https://twitter.com/mikeofcc/status/1130583036595179520[/embed]
T-Mobile has said that without the deal, it would have a hard time rolling out a nationwide 5G network, which is a priority of both the FCC and the Trump Administration more broadly.
The conditions include buildout and price pledges, and spinning off Boost Mobile, the low-cost prepaid wireless service.
