Top US antitrust official not sure if four mobile operators are necessary

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim declined on Friday to endorse the Obama administration’s staunch support for the need for four U.S. wireless carriers. Asked about T-Mobile’s plan to buy Sprint for $26 billion, Delrahim declined to echo the advice of President Barack Obama’s enforcers, who said four wireless carriers were needed. Instead, Delrahim told reporters: “I don’t think there’s a magic number that I could come up with.” He also said the department would look into the companies’ arguments that the proposed merger was necessary to build the next generation of wireless networks, known as 5G, but that they would have to prove their case. Bill Baer, ​​the former head of the antitrust division, told The New York Times in 2014: “It’s going to be hard for anyone to make a convincing argument that reducing four companies to three would actually improve competition for the benefit of American consumers.” (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Dan Grebler)