Once-in-a-generation: The Asia-Pacific Tipline for 14 February 2020

Barring a shocking decision on appeal, the US will transition from four to three major mobile providers after a court on Tuesday approved a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. Australia, much to antitrust boss Rod Sims’ chagrin, will continue to have three mobile providers after a court on Thursday allowed TPG Telecom to merge with Vodafone Hutchison. While that hardly settles the global debate for what constitutes the right number of mobile providers in the market, the two decisions have reshaped the telecommunications market in two countries that are barrelling toward 5G capabilities.