Spectrum customers in some highly competitive service areas are being offered more discounted services than ever before, including a $20 Lifestyle TV package with 50+ cable networks and local channels can be bundled with up to 200 Mbps internet access for $59.98 a month for 12 months (not including the $11.99/mo Broadcast TV Fee).

Spectrum Lifestyle TV ($19.99/mo) includes all local TV channels, plus:

• AMC
• MSNBC
• Arts & Entertainment
• Cartoon Network
• CNN
• SyFy
• Discovery Channel
• EWTN
• E!
• Inspiration
• Food Network
• ION
• Freeform
• TBN
• FX
• WGN America
• Hallmark
• BET
• Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
• TV Land
• HGTV
• VH-1
• Lifetime Channel
• OWN TV
• Oxygen
• BET Jams
• Spectrum News
• BET Soul
• TBS
• Nicktoons
• TLC
• TV One
• TNT
• BET Her
• USA Network
• Aspire
• Lifetime Movie Network
• Revolt
• History Channel
• The Africa Channel
• Animal Planet
• The Impact Network
• Spike TV
• Nick Jr.
• Comedy Central
• Teen Nick
• Bravo
• The CW
• Disney Channel
• StarzEncore Black
• Travel Channel

Customers can use their own equipment, such as Roku, Apple TV, desktop, or apps for iOS and Android, or rent traditional Spectrum set-top boxes for $7.50/mo each (add $4.99/mo to enable DVR service for one box or $9.99/mo for two or more boxes).

Spectrum’s traditional bundle promotion consists of up to 200 Mbps internet and Spectrum TV Select (125+ channels) for $89.98 a month, not including the $11.99/mo Broadcast TV Fee, so the stripped down Lifestyle TV bundle offers about $30 a month in savings.

Spectrum TV Stream is offered to cord-cutter/internet-only customers, but Lifestyle TV me be a more compelling deal.

If you want the Lifestyle TV package but want more channels, you can still save with this promotion by upgrading to the TV Silver package (175+ channels and HBO, Showtime, and the NFL Network) for $20 a month more, which is $25 less a month than what the traditional Double Play TV Silver and internet bundle costs.

Package Comparison (both offers include the same channel lineup and internet package)

• Lifestyle TV Promo: $19.99 Lifestyle TV + $39.99 internet + $20 TV Silver Upgrade + $11.99 BTV Fee = $91.97
• Traditional Double Play Promo: $44.99 Standard TV + $44.99 internet + $20 TV Silver Upgrade + $11.99 BTV Fee = $121.97

Stop the Cap! has confirmed this promotion is running in some AT&T service areas in the southern United States, especially Texas. You can confirm eligibility by visiting Spectrum.com and entering your street address, request to get pricing for new service, and selecting an internet-only package. The Lifestyle TV promotion will appear on the order page as a bundle option if you are qualified for the offer. Spectrum may offer you its other TV add-on packages, notably TV Stream ($24.99/mo), which is a less compelling streaming option with fewer channels at a higher price.

These offers and pricing are for “new customers only.” If you are a current customer, you can return your equipment at a Spectrum Cable Store location to cancel service without dealing with customer retentions, and then sign up as a new customer through the Spectrum website under the name of another family member or friend. Select self-install/pickup equipment in-store and you can get service under a new account on the same day. Otherwise, you must disconnect service for 30 days before qualifying again as a new customer. Depending on how much competition exists in your area, pricing and promotions can vary. Customers may find promotional pricing locked in for 12, 24, or 36 months depending on how much Spectrum is fighting to win customers in each area. Be sure to look out for free upgrades, particularly to 400 Mbps internet service, which is being offered in some areas.

Officials in the Justice Department are asking T-Mobile and Sprint to spin off a portion of their networks to lay the foundation to create a new national wireless carrier, with its own network, as a deal condition for approving their $26.5 billion merger.

Bloomberg News reports the launch of a new “fourth largest” U.S. wireless company would help win Justice Department approval for the merger deal, according to unnamed sources. Such a network could be created with the spinoff of Sprint’s Boost Mobile, a prepaid MVNO dependent on Sprint’s wireless network. Since a considerable percentage of Sprint’s existing network was expected to be scrapped after the merger won approval, Sprint could theoretically give up part of its network that would have been deemed redundant anyway to appease regulators. But Wall Street is unlikely to approve of the prospect of creating a new competitor, especially in a transaction designed to reduce the number of wireless competitors in the United States.

Boost Mobile, according to Reuters, could be worth $3 billion in a sale — potentially more if an already-built wireless network is included in the deal.

Critics wonder why the Justice Department would approve a deal merging T-Mobile and Sprint at all if officials were worried about reducing the number of wireless options for consumers. Industry observers suspect T-Mobile and Sprint would be unlikely to support such a network spinoff plan, and the resulting emergence of a new carrier likely to be even smaller than Sprint would leave it in a difficult position in a marketplace that would be dominated by three much larger national carriers planning to spend billions to develop 5G networks.

A source told Bloomberg News Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim “still wants four carriers” and remains unmoved by T-Mobile and Sprint’s arguments that combining operations would lead to more competition and lower prices for consumers. 

Many state attorneys general remain opposed to the merger, fearing that it will lead to less competition and higher prices.  They are waiting for the Justice Department to make its decision before contemplating lawsuits to block the merger if the deal wins approval in Washington.

Staffers working for the antitrust division of the Department of Justice have recommended the agency sue to block the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, arguing it will reduce competition and raise prices for consumers.

Two sources familiar with the matter told CNBC staffers have been skeptical of the merger and recommended blocking it on antitrust grounds. But the final decision will rest with President Donald Trump’s political appointees, notably Makan Delrahim, who heads the antitrust division. Delrahim can agree, modify, or reject the staffers’ recommendations.

The disclosure hammered Sprint shares earlier this morning in pre-market trading. Wall Street analysts are likely experiencing significant headaches trying to predict where the deal will ultimately end up. Earlier this week, the FCC’s Republican majority signaled they were prepared to approve the merger, based on concessions including the spinoff of prepaid Boost Mobile, which resells Sprint service.

A final decision from the Justice Department is likely to be announced in June.

Pai

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai found a lot to like about the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint and has recommended his fellow commissioners approve the transaction after the companies offered new commitments to ease anti-competitive and anti-trust concerns.

That typically means the FCC’s 3-2 Republican majority will quickly approve the deal in a forthcoming vote, with three Republicans in favor and two Democrats opposed, if tradition holds.

Pai’s support for the merger is hardly surprising. Since joining the FCC as a commissioner in the second half of the Obama Administration, Pai has consistently opposed every pro-consumer item on the FCC’s docket. He loves industry-consolidating mergers, hates telecom companies being forced to open their businesses to competition on things like set-top boxes, and considers almost all pro-consumer protection policies from net neutrality to merger deal conditions examples of “overregulation” that he argues are harmful to the free market and investment.

The troubled merger, which would create what we will call T-Sprint, has remained under review for months, recently stalled over revelations the two companies tailored the transaction to appeal to President Trump. T-Mobile executives spent $195,000 repeatedly renting rooms at the Trump International Hotel in Washington and spent large sums hiring Trump-connected “advisors” including Reince Priebus and Corey Lewandowski. The merger pitch was changed to emphasize its impact on rapidly growing 5G networks, a talking point favorite of President Trump, who wants to beat the Chinese over the development of next generation wireless networks.

The merger must win approval from both the FCC and the Justice Department. The latter is said to be troubled about the anti-competitive impact of reducing the number of national wireless carriers from four to three. Such a consolidation would likely permanently change the wireless competition paradigm, because there has been no interest among new entrants to construct multi-billion dollar national cellular networks to compete with established wireless companies.

On Monday, T-Mobile and Sprint delivered additional concessions which seem to have won the approval of Mr. Pai.

“Two of the FCC’s top priorities are closing the digital divide in rural America and advancing United States leadership in 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity,” Pai said in a statement Monday. “The commitments made today by T-Mobile and Sprint would substantially advance each of these critical objectives.”

But a closer examination of “T-Sprint’s concessions” shows there is remarkably little there to protect competition and consumers:

• A proposed spin off of prepaid Boost Mobile, which relies on the weaker Sprint network, is hardly much of a concession considering it will likely be impacted by the decommissioning of Sprint’s network, requiring at least some customers to buy new equipment that works on T-Mobile’s network. T-Sprint would also continue to control Boost competitors Virgin Mobile and MetroPCS, putting Boost at a distinct disadvantage.
• The “nationwide” 5G network promised by T-Sprint is replete with fine print. The company will not be formally assessed on its expansion progress for three years, has demanded that T-Mobile’s own employees be allowed to conduct network performance tests — a conflict of interest, and that if it fails to meet its own proposed metrics, the FCC must forego the use of its regulatory forfeiture powers. Instead, the company agrees to pay “voluntary” fines if it fails coverage expansion commitments that are open to wide interpretation and litigation.
• T-Sprint agreed to expand its “5G” coverage, but will rely heavily on existing macro cell towers and low and mid-band spectrum, shared by a much larger number of users than millimeter wave/small cell technology. That will probably deliver a more modest, incremental upgrade over existing 4G LTE technology, not a game-changer that can deliver gigabit speeds to wireless customers. Nothing precludes AT&T and Verizon from deploying similar upgrades without a competition-crushing merger between the third and fourth largest competitors.
• T-Sprint’s proposed wireless home broadband replacement does not include a commitment to provide unlimited service. In fact, vague language in the commitment letter suggests T-Sprint will offer the service with a performance and usage expectation akin to other fixed wireless networks. That likely means customers will endure a data cap and speeds that are not comparable to wired technology. Once the company has signed up 9.5 million home broadband customers, any commitments offered to regulators about that service automatically expire.
• The FCC is expected to give up much of its regulatory authority in return for T-Sprint’s commitments. If T-Sprint walks away from its commitments and not invest billions on its network expansion, it can pay a much smaller fine and have its merger obligations disappear. The FCC will not be able to use its more effective compliance power: forfeiture penalties.

T-Sprint’s argument is that this transaction will accelerate the deployment of 5G technology in a war for 5G supremacy with China. But exactly what technology is deployed, on what spectrum, using small cells or macro cell towers, makes a lot of difference. China’s wireless companies are owned and controlled by the Chinese government, which is also underwriting some of the costs. America’s networks are financed with private capital (and customer bills). T-Sprint’s 5G plans are also far less ambitious than those from AT&T and Verizon, and the cost to long-term competition is too high. The FCC should know that.

Congress has noticed that this merger has been rejected before during the Obama Administration for being anti competitive. Nothing has changed with respect to that. But T-Mobile’s lobbying sure has — this time trying to appeal to the Trump Administration for approval. Pai is certainly on board, and that could cost American consumers plenty.

Most telling of all is Wall Street’s reaction to today’s news. A merger that is being sold as as an AT&T/Verizon killer appears to be anything but. Verizon stock rose by 4.2% and AT&T by 4%. Investors recognize that consolidation can mean only one thing: higher prices. It means the end of the wireless price war that had Sprint and T-Mobile taking potshots at their larger rivals, forcing them to cut prices and bring back unlimited data plans.

It would be ruinous for T-Sprint to continue slashing prices and taunting AT&T and Verizon with costly promotions and giveaways. AT&T and Verizon expect T-Sprint will join their comfortable cartel with suspiciously similar plans and pricing, while firing up to 30,000 redundant workers and decommissioning Sprint’s wireless network. That last fact is well known on Wall Street, too. Cellphone tower owners took a beating in the stock market on the news they could lose Sprint as a customer. American Tower was down 1.9%, Crown Castle fell 3.2% and SBA Communications Corp. dropped as much as 4.5%.

The deal still must pass muster with the Justice Department, and attorneys general from multiple U.S. states are also opposing the deal on the state level. But the Republican members of the FCC joining up to support the deal make it more likely that it will eventually get approved.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – T-Mobile US Inc’s $26 billion acquisition of rival Sprint Corp won the support of the head of the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, in a big step toward the deal’s approval.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, came out in favor of the combination after the companies offered concessions including selling Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid cell service.

Sprint shares surged 23.2% while T-Mobile shares rose 5.1%. If okayed by the FCC, the deal would still need approval from the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division.

If the deal is completed, the number of U.S. wireless carriers would drop to three from four, with Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc leading the pack.

Some telecommunications experts have predicted that prices for cell phone service would rise as a result, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal agreed.

“The FCC’s seeming abdication makes it even more important for the Department of Justice to step up to the plate to block this merger,” the Democratic senator said in a statement.

Pai will recommend that the other four FCC commissioners vote to approve the merger. Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican, said on Monday he will vote in favor.

The third Republican, Mike O’Rielly, did not reply to a request for comment. The Commission is made up of three Republicans and two Democrats.

Pai

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, tweeted her disapproval.

“We’ve seen this kind of consolidation in airlines and with drug companies,” she said. “It hasn’t worked out well for consumers. But now the @FCC wants to bless the same kind of consolidation for wireless carriers. I have serious doubts.”

The FCC will not formally vote on the merger on Monday but will first draft an order, two people briefed on the matter said.

The FCC move boded well for the Justice Department to also approve the deal, Citi analysts said in a note.

“While the two federal agencies have different standards of review that could lead to different outcomes, we believe the likelihood for some coordination between the agencies is encouraging for the approval prospects by the (Justice Department),” the note said.

Reviews by state attorneys general and public utility commissions could push full approval back to the third quarter of this year, the Citi note said.

CONCESSIONS

In a filing with the FCC on Monday, the companies pledged to sell prepaid wireless provider Boost Mobile.

The sale will include the brand name, any active accounts and dedicated Boost assets and staff but no wireless spectrum. The new Boost could buy network access from T-Mobile for at least six years.

One critic of the deal called the concession weak.

“I don’t understand how the mere spinning off of one of three prepaid services would satisfy (Pai), given all the evidence in the record that post-paid (wireless) prices will go up,” said Gigi Sohn, who held a senior FCC position during the Obama administration. “I just think this is very weak tea.”

The Boost sale is aimed at resolving concerns that the deal would give the combined company 54% of the prepaid market, which generally includes those with poor credit who cannot pay with a credit card.

T-Mobile, which is about 63 percent owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, also promised the new company would build a “world-leading” 5G network, which is supposed to be the next generation of wireless service. It promises to give rural Americans robust 5G broadband and enhance home broadband.

The FCC and Justice Department had been expected to make a decision in early June. They have been weighing potential a loss of competition and higher prices for consumers against the prospect of a more powerful No. 3 wireless carrier that can build a faster, better 5G network.

T-Mobile has about 80 million customers and Sprint has about 55 million customers.

Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz, additional reporting by Douglas Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Susan Heavey, Paul Simao and Jeffrey Benkoe