The US Federal Communications Commission is feeling the heat after a vote along party lines resulted in a 3:2 majority approval for the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.

The result should come as no surprise.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai and his two fellow Republican commissioners said in May that the watchdog should wave through the deal. This was before Dish confirmed plans to acquire 14 MHz of Sprint’s 800-MHz spectrum, as well as its prepaid businesses – including Boost Mobile and Virgin – for the purpose of rolling out a nationwide 5G network. It was also before the Department of Justice (DoJ) gave its approval, approval that was conditional on turning Dish into a new fourth player.

“[This week’s] decision is the culmination of one of the most irregular and opaque processes in FCC history,” said Gigi Sohn, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law Institute for Technology and Policy, and former advisor to ex-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler.

“The FCC majority prejudged the merits of this merger two months before the Justice Department found the combination of T-Mobile and Sprint to be anticompetitive and required the creation of a new fourth competitor,” she noted.

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