Dish closes in on $6B Sprint, T-Mobile asset buy

Dish Network was tipped to have seen off competition from Altice USA and Comcast in a race to acquire assets from Sprint and T-Mobile US being offered as part of the pair’s bid to secure approval for a merger.

Sources told Bloomberg Dish Network could fork out $6 billion for spectrum and Sprint prepay brand Boost Mobile. The assets are among a number of concessions the merger hopefuls have made in an attempt to persuade authorities to pass their divisive deal.

A deal could be finalised this week, Bloomberg added.

Last week the news agency stated Dish Network was one of three bidders preferred by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

Dish Network provides satellite TV services and has regularly voiced its intent to push into the wireless space, deploying an NB-IoT network and eventually turning its attention to 5G services.

While chairman of regulator the Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai has come out in favour of the merger, DoJ officials and a number of individual states are less keen.

The all stock deal, worth $26 billion, was announced in April 2018 and was originally slated for completion “no later” than the first half of 2019. However, the approval process was delayed by a 35-day US government shutdown at the turn of the year.