Washington(Reuters) - U.S. Commerce SecretaryWilbur Rosson Tuesday said building a next-generation 5gmobile network was a priority for the Donald Trump administration, boosting the argument behind Wirelesscarriers' Sprint Corpand T-mobileUsInc proposed deal.
"I think the pitch that Sprint and T-mobileare making is an interesting one, that their merger would propel Verizonand At%26tinto more active pursuit of 5G," Ross told CNBC.
"Whoever pursues it, whoever does it, we're very much in support of 5g We need it. We need it for defense purposes, we need it for commercial purposes," he added.
T-mobileand Sprint announced on Sunday that they had agreed on a merger, capping four years of on-and-off talks between the third and fourth largest U.S. Wirelesscarriers. Regulators are expected to grill the firms on how they will price their combined Wirelessofferings.
T-mobileand Sprint said the combined company will invest $40 billion over the next three years to upgrade networks to accommodate 5g
Shares for both companies were down about 2.5 percent at midday trading.
(Reporting by Makini Briceand David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyamaand Nick Zieminski)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)