The Department of Justice has approved T-Mobile’s deal to acquire Sprint, requiring the companies to divest some assets that Dish Networks can use to build a new fourth national U.S. wireless network.

Why it matters: T-Mobile and Sprint have argued that a combination of their resources will help them compete with market leaders Verizon and AT&T. Opponents of the deal argued that it will reduce competition.

The Justice Department and five states reached the settlement with Sprint and T-Mobile, which calls on the companies to:

• Sell Sprint’s prepaid brands (Boost, Virgin and Sprint Prepaid) to Dish Network.
• Make available at least 20,000 cell sites to Dish
• Divest some spectrum in the 800MHz range to Dish
• Provide Dish with “robust access” to the T-Mobile network for at least 7 years while Dish builds out its 5G network
• engage in “good faith” negotiations about leasing some of Dish’s existing 600MHz spectrum

Yes, but: Dish already has been sitting on a bunch of spectrum that it has yet to use and many wireless industry experts doubt its ability to emerge as a serious fourth player in the market.

More at Axios.