U.S. antitrust regulators urged a judge to give financially-strapped Dish Network Corp. more time to purchase airwaves from T-Mobile U.S. Inc., which wants instead to auction the frequencies.
The airwaves divestiture was ordered by U.S. officials in an effort to restore competition lost when T-Mobile bought wireless provider Sprint Corp. in 2020. T-Mobile earlier asked the court to deny Dish’s request so it can move to an auction. A handful of states taking part in the litigation surrounding the Sprint deal also opposed the extension, Bloomberg News reported. Dish is merging with EchoStar Corp., a satellite communications company it previously owned, as a way to ease financial pressure and give it time to build a new wireless network.