T-Mobile

T-Mobile

Basic information
Founded	1994
Type	Public
Industry	Telecommunications
Official website	https://t-mobile.com/

T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its largest shareholder is Deutsche Telekom AG, a company partially owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, which owns and operates telecommunications networks in several other countries. T-Mobile is the second largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 127.5 million subscribers as of September 30, 2024.

Controversies

Bribing Officials

Deutsche Telekom was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2011 for bribing government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro to prevent a telecom competitor from acquiring a license and for their support in the buyout of a state-owned telecommunications company. DT and its subsidiary Magyar Telekom agreed to pay a total $95 million settlement.

Acquisition of Sprint

On April 1, 2020, T-Mobile US acquired Sprint Corporation for $26 billion. Prior to the formal acquisition, 14 state attorneys general filed suit to block the merger, alleging it would result in higher prices for consumers to the extent of $4.5 billion annually. The merger was allowed to proceed, with the judge stating "the merger is not likely to substantially lessen competition like the suing state AGs had claimed it would" and also that Sprint "does not have a sustainable long-term competitive strategy [to remain a viable competitor]." As one of the leaders of the suit, the attorney general of California struck a settlement, gaining several substantial concessions toward protecting Californian jobs and low-cost mobile plans.

The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division required that Sprint sell several billion dollar assets to Dish Network prior to merging with T-Mobile.

As of September 30, 2024, a T-Mobile filing with the SEC indicates multiple ongoing legal cases and consumer class action cases alleging antitrust activities, chiefly as it relates to T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint. As an example, Dale et al. v. Deutsche Telekom AG, et al., filed in 2022, seeks damages in the billions because of "anticompetitive effects" (i.e. higher prices) as a result of the merger.

WIP Unformal (requires actual documentation and drafting)

I am just adding the topic so that someone who is better at this can assist and write it up if possible. It is about the lifetime price lock guaranteed that they advertised for their cellular plans (call text and data). When the net neutrality rule was going to be enforced again, they hiked their prices. That is a speculation on my part, but the timeline was very close between the scheduled effective date of the net neutrality enforcement and when the price hikes happened. There are some reddit threads on the topic too. They then changed the meaning of the price lock to mean they can change the price and if you do not like it they pay for the last month of the services. But that does not account for any promos they might have sold you on with the promise of price staying the same and in turn the customer signs a 24 month contract.

I realize this is poorly written but I want to at least have a record of it here so that someone who is willing and has the time to draft a formal section about it here. Thanks to all the volunteers and have a nice day.