Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, Inc., which announced on April 29, 2018 that they would merge, have informed the Federal Communications Commission that they intend to file, on Monday, June 18, 2018, the necessary applications seeking the Commission’s approval to transfer control of licenses. In anticipation of this filing, the FCC has released a public notice announcing that it has opened up a new docket, WT Docket No. 18-197. The public notice also articulates the ex parte status of discussions related to the proposed transaction. The FCC also released a protective order which “set[s] forth procedures to: (1) limit access to proprietary or confidential information that may be filed in this proceeding, and (2) more strictly limit access to certain particularly competitively sensitive information, which, if released to competitors or those with whom the Submitting Party or a Third-Party Interest Holder does business, would allow those persons to gain a significant competitive advantage or an advantage in negotiations.”
