Sacramento, California - On the heels of a status hearing in the southern district of New York, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Wednesday issued the following statement welcoming Texas to the coalition of now 15 attorneys general suing to block the proposed merger of telecommunications companies T-Mobile and Sprint:

"This is welcome news having Texas as a partner in our fight to protect consumers and competition,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Our coalition of 15 attorneys general will do everything it can to ensure telecom prices are fair and competitive. In California, our concerns with the merger have been about the harms posed by shrinking market competition. Choice is not real if competition isn’t meaningful, and a marketplace with fewer active competitors drives up prices and thwarts innovation.”

The coalition led by Attorney General Becerra and New York Attorney General Letitia James filed the lawsuit on June 11, 2019. The companies – two of only four national wireless telecom providers – offer wireless phone services to over 13 million California consumers. The lawsuit challenges the acquisition of Sprint by T-Mobile because it would lead to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers, particularly low-income subscribers of the companies’ services. Today’s status conference in the southern district of New York was held to address trial schedule, discovery disputes, and other logistical questions.

In addition to California, New York and Texas, the coalition challenging the merger includes Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Virginia, and Wisconsin.