U.S. Commerce Secretary says 5G priority for Trump administration

por · 1 de mayo de 2018

WASHINGTON – U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Tuesday said building a next-generation 5G mobile network was a priority for the Donald Trump administration, boosting the argument behind wireless carriers’ Sprint Corp (S.N) and T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.O) proposed deal.

“I think the pitch that Sprint and T-Mobile are making is an interesting one, that their merger would propel Verizon and AT&T into more active pursuit of 5G,” Ross told CNBC.

“Whoever pursues it, whoever does it, we’re very much in support of 5G. We need it. We need it for defense purposes, we need it for commercial purposes,” he added.

T-Mobile and Sprint announced on Sunday that they had agreed on a merger, capping four years of on-and-off talks between the third and fourth largest U.S. wireless carriers. Regulators are expected to grill the firms on how they will price their combined wireless offerings.

T-Mobile and Sprint said the combined company will invest $40 billion over the next three years to upgrade networks to accommodate 5G.

Shares for both companies were down about 2.5 percent at midday trading.

Source: reuters