Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The blockbuster T-Mobile / Sprint merger was approved the Department of Justice in July, along with a complicated set of conditions aimed at turning Dish Network into a national wireless carrier. Instead of blocking the merger and maintaining all four major wireless carriers, the government is essentially trying to manufacture a fourth carrier to replace Sprint, by requiring T-Mobile to run a new Dish Network-branded wireless service for seven years while Dish builds its own network that will eventually compete with T-Mobile. If Dish doesn’t build that network by 2023, it will have to pay a $2.2 billion fine.

If that sounds like a complicated scheme that doesn’t quite make sense, you’re not alone. In a new filing, a group of seven…

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