T-Mobile US CEO John Legere (pictured) expressed confidence the operator will be able to close its pending merger with Sprint in early 2020, after winning over two of the states opposing the deal.

During a Q3 earnings call, Legere said conversations with 16 attorney generals who are part of a lawsuit to block the deal are ongoing and centre around concerns about rural 5G coverage, pricing and competition.

He noted the operator feels “very good” about where those discussions are headed, adding it is confident in its ability to either reach a settlement with them or prevail in a court battle expected to begin on 9 December.

“What we’ve been able to do, as you’ve seen recently with both Colorado and Mississippi, is once you speak to these individual attorney generals about their state and the things that are important to them, they see that what they’re concerned about is committed to nationally and can be tailored for them.”

Legere said the conversations may be bolstered by an announcement due on 7 November, without adding detail.

While the CEO acknowledged closing the transaction had “taken longer than planned,” he noted the delay gave the operator more time to prepare for integration with Sprint, with a plan in place to rapidly deploy Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum “soon after closing”.

Metrics
Net income of $870 million was up 9 per cent year-on-year from $795 million, with revenue of $11.1 billion 2 per cent higher.

Post-paid phone net additions of 754,000 far exceeded rivals Verizon and AT&T, but were down slightly from 774,000 in Q3 2018, while prepaid jumped to 62,000 from 35,000.