美国国家公共电台 NPR T-Mobile And Sprint Merger Finally Wins Justice Department's Blessing

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The Justice Department has given its blessing¹ to a deal that would transform America's wireless² industry. Sprint³ and T-Mobile are now a step closer to merging⁴. It would create the nation's third-largest wireless phone carrier, behind Verizon and AT&T. As NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE⁵: The two carriers first proposed a merger⁷ five years ago. That fell through because of concerns that less competition would raise prices for consumers. Then last year, the companies came back with their current $26 billion plan to merge⁶. Erik Gordon is a business professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

ERIK GORDON: This deal is one of the longest deals in gestation⁸, ever.

NOGUCHI: The companies argued that by combining they could invest more heavily in superfast, 5G wireless networks.

GORDON: Neither company wanted to foot the bill alone. So they had every incentive⁹ to get together.

NOGUCHI: Gordon says the Justice Department bought that argument. Makan Delrahim is assistant attorney general.

MAKAN DELRAHIM: The combination of T-Mobile and Sprint creates real procompetitive efficiencies by accelerating the 5G broadband build-out in the United States and, importantly, to many people in the rural parts of the country.

NOGUCHI: As part of its bargain with regulators, Sprint will have to sell its Boost Mobile prepaid phone business and some of its valuable airwaves to Dish Network. That means Dish, a satellite TV company with no experience in the phone business, would resell T-Mobile's service, becoming the fourth-largest national wireless provider. These concessions¹⁰ did not appease¹¹ consumer advocates. Gigi Sohn is a fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law & Policy. She says the merging companies had been the industry's fiercest competitors, and their rivalry¹² served consumers well.

GIGI SOHN: T-Mobile really was the maverick¹³ company in this space. Both T-Mobile and Sprint. They were the ones who got rid of two-year contracts. They were the ones who let you take your device to different networks. You know, they were the ones who had family plans.

NOGUCHI: George Slover, senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports, says he thinks the effect is that consumers will end up paying more.

GEORGE SLOVER: It's going to be less quality, higher prices, fewer choices, all of the harms that we've been talking about since the merger was proposed.

NOGUCHI: The deal has one tentative approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which will vote on the proposal. But the deal has not yet cleared all legal hurdles¹⁴. A group of state attorneys general led by California and New York has filed suit trying to block the deal. They claim the combination would raise wireless prices on consumers by more than $4.5 billion a year. That trial is currently scheduled to take place in October, but the states have requested a delay.

Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

1 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

2 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

3 sprint   

n.短距离赛跑；vi. 奋力而跑，冲刺；vt.全速跑过

参考例句：

• He put on a sprint to catch the bus.他全速奔跑以赶上公共汽车。
• The runner seemed to be rallied for a final sprint.这名赛跑者似乎在振作精神作最后的冲刺。

4 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

7 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

8 gestation   

n.怀孕；酝酿

参考例句：

• The gestation period can be anything between 95 and 150 days.妊娠期从95天至150天不等。
• This film was two years in gestation.这部电影酝酿了两年。

9 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

10 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

11 appease   

v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足

参考例句：

• He tried to appease the crying child by giving him candy.他试图给那个啼哭的孩子糖果使他不哭。
• The government tried to appease discontented workers.政府试图安抚不满的工人们。

12 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

13 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

14 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句