Sprint and T-Mobile USA are part of a new alliance that is critical of spectrum agreements between Verizon Wireless and U.S. cable companies including Comcast.
The Alliance for Broadband Competition has formed amid federal regulatory review of deals that would give the nation's largest mobile-phone company billions of dollars worth of spectrum.
The pacts between Verizon and the cable companies also feature other components that have raised concern, including co-marketing agreements to sell each other's products and services as well as the formation of a joint venture to develop technology to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services.
Other members of the newly formed alliance include Public Knowledge, RCA-The Competitive Carriers Association and RTC-The Rural Telecommunications Group.
"The Verizon-Cable deals require strict scrutiny, enforceable conditions helping to restore the competitive marketplace, and divestiture in markets where the transfers are not in the public interest," said Steven Berry, President and CEO of RCA-The Competitive Carriers Association.
T-Mobile USA asserted the Verizon/cable agreements "will result in excessive concentration of this especially important spectrum for LTE in the hands of the nation’s largest wireless carrier, who has been sitting on spectrum in this very band for years without making the slightest effort to put it to use."
In Federal Communications Commission filings, Verizon Wireless has declared the agreements to buy spectrum "raise no competitive concerns" and will help it meet the growing demand for broadband services.
Cable companies involved in the deals include Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable.
The FCC and Department of Justice are reviewing the deals, and the FCC recently extended its review because it said documents hadn't been produced in a timely manner.
Sprint said it "urges the FCC to closely examine whether the collaboration of these telecommunications and cable giants upends competition between these historical industry rivals, resulting in reduced choice and increased prices for consumers."
