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[ [link removed] ]Free Press

Dear Friend,

This weekend, Sprint and T-Mobile announced that they plan to merge. This is great news ... if you’re a greedy corporation looking to drive up prices for people who have almost nowhere else to go for affordable internet access.

This deal is terrible news: Tell the FCC to reject the Sprint/T-Mobile merger.
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As the digital divide continues to plague communities of color and low-income people, many households rely on mobile devices as their sole internet connection. Why?

While most communities have only one or two options for wired internet at their residences and businesses, there’s more competition among cellphone companies. And that competition has created lower prices and helped close the digital divide around mobile internet and cellphone adoption. [1]

Sprint and T-Mobile have competed by offering more affordable services and letting low-cost providers like Ting and Simple Mobile use their networks.

But this proposed merger would kill that competition. And the newly merged mobile giant would likely pursue the more-lucrative business model of AT&T and Verizon — which totally ignores low-income communities.

Tell the FCC to block this deal and protect competition. People should have the option to reject overpriced services by taking their business elsewhere.
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It’s not just mobile affordability and access that’s in danger. This merger threatens the future of the internet.

Every day a stream of headlines reminds us how our ability to communicate freely is under assault from the forces of the hyper-commercial internet system. But without affordable, robust, wide-open and competing networks, it will be impossible to build a better internet — one that’s noncommercial, peer-to-peer and protected from the prying eyes of advertisers and platforms.

At a time when the Trump administration and too many Republicans in Congress have given the green light for ISPs to spy on us, the last thing we need is a merger that will give more power to AT&T and Verizon.

You deserve better. Tell the FCC to deny this deal and promote healthy competition to fuel a better internet for all.
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It’s time for the FCC to do the right thing. The future of the internet is at stake.

Thanks for all that you do—

Candace, Collette and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

P.S. Tell the FCC to stop the Sprint/T-Mobile merger. We demand access to better choices in mobile broadband services.

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1. “Digital Denied,” Free Press, Dec. 12, 2016