A report by The Wall Street Journal Tuesday cast doubt on whether the third- and fourth-largest U.S. telecommunications companies, T-Mobile U.S. Inc. and Sprint Corp., will merge, but the companies quickly refuted the report.

According to the Journal, the $26 billion merger might not happen and Justice Department officials said as much to representatives of the two companies at a recent private meeting. They were told at the moment the deal would be rejected reportedly because it would undermine competition in the wireless industry.

T-Mobile and Sprint have said otherwise in the past, stating that such a merger would only increase competition with the two biggest names in the industry, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. They also said the deal would bolster efforts to roll out 5G next-generation wireless.

If the deal did go through, it would mean the two companies would have roughly a 30 percent market share in the U.S. wireless market. As far back as 2014 a deal was mulled over, but similar concerns from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Justice put an end to that.

T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said on Twitter that out of respect for the process, he was not prepared to go into details about the merger, but wrote that the report in the Journal was “simply untrue.”

Also taking to Twitter was Sprint Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure. “We continue to have discussions with regulators about our proposed merger with @TMobile,” wrote Claure. “That process is ongoing.”

The 180-day FCC review period will end in June. Approval will also have to be given by the DOJ and it’s reported that several state attorneys general are reviewing the merger.

The merger has met with resistance from some Democratic U.S. senators, who have voiced concerns regarding prices and jobs. “Our enforcement officials are the last line of defense preventing reconsolidation of our telecommunications markets at the expense of American consumers,” the senators said in a statement. “We urge you to act to prevent this dangerous merger from proceeding.”

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