Fresno Hearing on T-Mobile/Sprint Merger

Fresno Hearing on T-Mobile/Sprint Merger

By Media Alliance

On Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. at Fresno City Hall, the California Public Utilities Commission will hold a public participation hearing on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. This is the only public hearing scheduled for the northern part of the state. Parties are set to come from Sacramento and the Bay Area.

The purpose of the hearing is to gather public input regarding the planned merger. Your independent voice is much needed.

This merger has significant economic justice issues, especially in the prepaid phone market, where market leaders PCS Metro (T-Mobile) and Boost (Sprint) would become one, leading to a market share of 60%. That will inevitably lead to higher prices, tighten credit requirements and make it harder, if not completely impossible, for people with poor credit and limited cash flow to use smartphones. Statistics show the merger will disproportionately affect poor people and people of color.

The important things for the commissioners to hearā€”from people that arenā€™t paid to be thereā€”are the importance of peopleā€™s phones to them, why they are in the prepaid market and the difficulties it might cause to face a substantial price increase with few alternatives.

Author

  • Community Alliance

    The Community Alliance is a monthly newspaper that has been published in Fresno, California, since 1996. The purpose of the newspaper is to help build a progressive movement for social and economic justice.

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