Old Fashioned

T-Mobile is running an old-fashioned PR campaign to gain support for its proposed merger with Sprint. It is writing pleas to smaller competitors to pen letters and op-eds. The company is offering to supply talking points to help the process along. One wonders in an age of e-mail and internet whether such techniques still work. We’re about to find out. The Federal Communications Commission is collecting comments and will rule on the combination in the weeks to come. The argument against the merger has been too much power in the hands of the top three mobile vendors if T-Mobile and Sprint combine. The counter has been that the merged companies can roll out 5G networks more quickly. A question to ask is if the FCC will discount letters of support in light of the PR campaign.