Before T-Mobile acquired Sprint, activists, consumer groups, and deal critics (including me) warned repeatedly that the telecom sector megadeal would result in layoffs, less competition, higher prices, and a lower quality product overall. The Trump FCC and DOJ very clearly didn’t care; they rubber stamped the deal without even reading deal impact reports.
Fr, I always remember seeing phrases along the lines of “T-Mobile, a distant third competitor” all the time and sprint was literally on the verge of bankruptcy. If you think sprint merging with T-Mobile was bad, just imagine what it would be like if they had just gone bankrupt and AT&T/Verizon swopped in and bought large chunks of them for pennies on the dollar.
Remember, AT&T was against the deal and was part of a lawsuit to block it IIRC, so on that reason alone people should have supported the deal because any move AT&T figures is good for them is probably bad for people.