Lycamobile Challenges T-Mobile's Proposed Buy of Mint
T-Mobile and Lycamobile USA exchanged shots in the docket concerning T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena. Lyca described itself as a mobile virtual network operator with a small…
footprint in the U.S. “Lyca has struggled over the past several years to obtain basic functionalities from T-Mobile, such as eSIM and access to T-Mobile’s 5G standalone architecture, and to get T-Mobile to fairly observe the terms of its MVNO agreement,” said a filing in docket 23-171: “Lyca is concerned that T-Mobile has been advantaging Ultra and Mint because of their intended acquisition of the companies while systematically disadvantaging Lyca, a close independent competitor.” T-Mobile responded in a filing posted Thursday. “Lyca’s Pleading is entirely without merit and improperly seeks to interject an irrelevant private contractual dispute … into the Commission’s public interest review of the Transaction,” T-Mobile said. More than a year ago, T-Mobile filed a complaint seeking recovery of payment from Lyca for services the carrier provided under a wholesale services agreement, the filing said.