U.S. judge opens Justice Dept’s T-Mobile/Sprint deal approval to comments

WASHINGTON: A federal judge who is set to assess the Justice Department’s approval of T-Mobile US’s plan to buy rival Sprint Corp said on Friday he would allow comments filed to the court about the $26 billion telecoms deal.

Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington said he would consider friend of the court briefs on the controversial deal to merge the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. wireless companies. He said in a brief order that they would be limited to 20 pages and should refrain from repeating arguments made to the Justice Department since the judge has access to those.

“I want to give them a reasonable opportunity to be heard,” Kelly said in a hearing on Friday.