Today, Judge Victor Marrero of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. As a condition of the merger, DISH will enter the U.S. wireless market as the fourth nationwide facilities-based network competitor and has committed to deploy a 5G broadband network capable of serving 70 percent of the U.S. population by June 2023.

The following statement is attributable to Charlie Ergen, DISH co-founder and chairman:

“We appreciate Judge Marrero’s thorough evaluation of this merger. The ruling, in addition to the DOJ and FCC approvals, accelerates our ability to deploy the nation’s first virtualized, standalone 5G network and bring 5G to America.

“We are eager to begin serving Boost customers while aggressively growing the business as a new competitor, bringing lower prices, greater choice and more innovation to consumers. We look forward to the Boost employees and dealers joining the DISH family. 

“We want to thank the staff at the Department of Justice and the FCC for comprehensively investigating this merger and imposing a strong remedy that Judge Marrero concluded was timely, likely and sufficient.”