T-Mobile's planned $4.4 billion acquisition of substantial UScellular assets has been approved by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Approval from the DOJ came a day after T-Mobile agreed to end its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

“After a thorough investigation, the Antitrust Division determined prudentially not to seek an injunction to prevent T-Mobile from closing on its proposed acquisition of UScellular," said Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater of the Justice Department's antitrust division.

The DOJ kicked off a review into the acquisition last year, which will see T-Mobile scoop up UScellular's operations, including its customer base and around 30 percent of the company's wireless spectrum.

UScellular will retain ownership of its other spectrum assets, plus its towers, with T-Mobile entering into a long-term arrangement to lease space on at least 2,100 additional towers being retained.

Despite the DOJ's review, the department did express concerns about the state of competition in wireless and the availability of wireless spectrum.

However, the DOJ concluded that UScellular, which serves 4.5 million mobiles across 21 US states in mostly rural areas, has struggled to keep up with the big three US carriers. UScellular also struck separate spectrum deals with AT&T and Verizon for $1bn each last year.

"UScellular simply could not keep up with the escalating cost of capital investments in technology required to compete vigorously in the relevant market. This would, in turn, lead to the slow degradation of its network quality," said Slater.

"In contrast, T-Mobile has publicly committed that it will integrate the two networks in a way that provides UScellular customers with faster data speeds, while T-Mobile customers will obtain broader coverage in rural areas."

T-Mobile's decision to end its DEI strategy is in alignment with President Donald Trump's policies.

Rival telco Verizon similarly ended its DEI policies before securing approval from the Federal Communications Commission to push ahead with its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications.

Shortly after the DOJ gave its approval to the deal, the FCC also greenlighted T-Mobile's acquisition of UScellular, along with T-Mobile's acquisition of fiber provider Metronet.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr previously stated that he was prepared to block mergers and acquisition proposals from companies that promote “invidious” DEI policies.