Washington, D.C., November 6, 2017 – The following statement may be attributed to Carri Bennet, the Rural Wireless Association’s (“RWA”) General Counsel:

Rural consumers are breathing a sigh of relief upon news that T-Mobile USA, Inc. (“T-Mobile”) and Sprint Corp. (“Sprint”) have walked away from a potential merger.   Six years ago, RWA stood on the right side of history when it fought AT&T, Inc.’s (“AT&T”) takeover of T-Mobile.  The much larger AT&T infamously predicted that T-Mobile would wither-on-the-vine absent a takeover.  Today, not only is T-Mobile highly-competitive and a marketplace maverick, but the U.S.’s premier retail “uncarrier” is stealing customers from AT&T and Verizon Wireless.  There is no reason why Sprint cannot replicate T-Mobile’s success while still providing American consumers with four nationwide LTE competitive options.  This is good news for keeping jobs in America and upholding marketplace competition!