Coalition Renews Call for FCC to Consolidate Review of UScellular Deals
Coalition indicates that its not finished fighting UScellular-T-Mobile transaction, closed or not.
WASHINGTON, August 13, 2025 – A coalition of broadband groups again urged the Federal Communications Commission to combine its review of three separate transactions involving the UScellular.
In an August 7 letter, the Rural Wireless Association, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and Communications Workers of America, argued that three separate deals splitting UScellular’s assets were “interdependent and must be evaluated together” to fully assess their combined effects on competition, rural service, consumer welfare, labor markets, and the broader public interest.
The coalition letter, led by Carri Bennet, Nell Geiser, Michael Calabrese, and Andrew Jay Schwartzman, again urged the full FCC commission to review the UScellular transactions, rather than delegate that authority to its staff.
T-Mobile announced in May 2024 that it had agreed to acquire UScellular's wireless operations and nearly a third of its spectrum for $4.4 billion. That announcement was soon followed by announcements from Verizon and AT&T that they would each purchase $1 billion of UScellular’s spectrum.
All three deals required approval from the FCC before they could be finalized, and all three were opposed by the advocacy groups calling for the consolidated review. The FCC approved T-Mobile’s purchase of UScellular in July, and that deal closed in August. The FCC has not ruled on AT&T or Verizon’s pending transactions with UScellular.
The approval and closure of the T-Mobile/UScellular deal has not stopped the advocacy groups from fighting against it. Shortly after the deal was approved by the FCC, RWA vowed to file an internal appeal challenging the decision.
On August 1, the same day the T-Mobile/UScellular deal closed, RWA filed a petition with the FCC reiterating its opposition to the deal, and noting that “as long as such [Applications for Review] remain pending and until after all appeals are resolved, approval of the T-Mobile/UScellular transaction is not final.”
The Thursday request from the coalition mirrors a similar petition they brought, in conjunction with Public Knowledge, before the FCC in May. That petition argued that consolidated review was necessary because “viewed collectively, the three transactions effectuate a scheme that would likely violate the antitrust laws were it subject to them.”
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