The AT&T/T-Mobile merger is a bit of a weird case. The breakup fee was substantial at about $6B (half in cash, half in spectrum). Without that additional spec

The AT&T/T-Mobile merger is a bit of a weird case. The breakup fee was substantial at about $6B (half in cash, half in spectrum). Without that additional spectrum, T-Mobile would have had a hard time launching an LTE network. The combination of the breakup fee and the merger with MetroPCS left T-Mobile with a decent amount of new spectrum to deploy LTE on. Without the breakup fee, T-Mobile's future was a lot more dim. In some ways, I think regulators would have been more likely to approve it without the breakup fee. The case was basically "T-Mobile doesn't have enough spectrum for LTE...you know, unless you deny this merger in which case we have to give them the spectrum they need." It certainly turned out well for consumers, but part of the reason behind that is that T-Mobile was literally thrown new cards via the breakup fee. Their hand was really bad before that.