But the reality was either they merged, or Sprint would shut down. There was no scenario where Sprint stayed in businesses acting as competition.
On top of the that T-Mobile had a really hard time competing with Verizon and AT&T because of lack of spectrum, so preventing them from getting Sprint's spectrum would actually make them less competitive.
I think the author may have forgotten that Verizon and AT&T are competitors to T-Mobile and instead only paid attention to Sprint.
> "Not only did the DOJ ignore all objective data showing the deal would clearly be terrible for customers, the market, and employees"
What data is this? Because out here in the real world the deal has been amazing for T-Mobile customers and the market. Perhaps not employees, but that's not really a reason to stop it.