The California Public Utilities Commission, one of the last remaining regulatory bodies that needs to clear the T-Mobile US Inc./Sprint Corp. merger for the deal to close, moved closer to ruling on the transaction when the administrative law judge for the case said a final decision should be reached by April 16.

Approval from the California PUC is needed for integration to be permitted in the state. On Feb. 11, T-Mobile President Mike Sievert said he hopes to close the merger as early as April 1, a closing date that now appears to be unlikely under the current schedule at the agency.

The administrative law judge for the case, Karl Bemesderfer, said on Feb. 24 that a proposed decision should be issued "on or before March 13," a little more than a month before the final decision date. This means the public will have insight into which way the agency is leaning in the next few weeks.

However, Steve Blum — president of Tellus Venture Associates, a management and business development consultancy specializing in broadband and telecommunications — wrote in a Feb. 25 blog that there is no guarantee the schedule will be met.

Blum called the ruling on the schedule "a plan, not holy writ," but noted that the administrative law judge publishing the ruling indicates "a significant degree of confidence that all the necessary facts are in the record."

Blum previously told S&P Global Market Intelligence that it would be unusual in recent history for the California PUC to block the deal outright. Instead, he said the commission has approved recent telecom deals with concessions.

Additionally, a federal judge still needs to sign off on the U.S. Department of Justice's conditional approval of the deal, which included a settlement. Under the terms of the DOJ's approval, T-Mobile and Sprint must divest Sprint's prepaid business — including the Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint prepaid brands — to DISH Network Corp. Among other terms, the combined T-Mobile and Sprint must provide DISH with "robust access" to the T-Mobile network for seven years as the satellite company builds out its own 5G wireless network.

A former DOJ attorney previously told S&P Global Market Intelligence that it was "very unlikely" the settlement would not be approved, because there is a relatively low standard that must be met.