Mostly good news this week for wanna-be partners T-Mobile and Sprint whose merger application was approved in a 3-2 vote at the PA PUC, but may be facing additional scrutiny at the U.S. Department of Justice. The majority PUC vote was in support of a Motion from Commissioner Andrew Place which noted the “affirmative public benefits” offered by the parties in their application; most notably the commitment to deploy 5G broadband service in rural Pennsylvania. At the federal level, FCC Chairman Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr have publicly announced support for the union after the companies promised, among other things, not to raise prices for three years, but a Bloomberg report earlier this week noted that the DOJ was still concerned about the anticompetitive effects of the consolidation. Stay tuned.