Newsletter
T-Mobile and Sprint have agreed on a $26.5 Billion merger that will seek to take on the competition of the nation’s first and second-largest wireless carriers, Verizon and AT&T. While the deal has been reached between the two companies, it will still have to be approved by the FCC. That aside this merger announcement means the near-final end to a saga of rumors and speculation about the two companies coming together. It also means an influx of tons of new jobs, “thousands” according to Legere, and a committed investment of around $40 Billion back into the combined network and business.
Another big focus for the two companies merging together is of course the consumers, as well as the expansion of nationwide 5G and 5G innovation. Legere’s claim is that no one carrier is capable of creating a truly 5G network quickly, save for T-Mobile and Sprint as a combined company thanks to Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum and T-Mobile’s 600 MHz spectrum and “other combined assets.” The “New T-Mobile’s” plan is to create the U.S.’ highest capacity network to date, with speeds that are up to 100 times faster than T-Mobile’s current top speeds, and a capacity that is 30 times higher than it’s current network.
For Verizon and AT&T to do the same thing and create a truly nationwide 5G network Legere states that both companies would have one of two options, which are to either transition customers of off LTE or build on their millimeter wave spectrum. According to Legere, the former option would be a years long commitment, while the latter would cost upwards of $1.5 Trillion to complete. The point T-Mobile and Sprint are trying to make is that the merger makes a lot of sense for more than a few reasons, which are thousands of new jobs, faster network speeds and a higher capacity network which translates to an overall better network for the consumer, and the chance for the U.S. to lead in 5G advancement in the still-early stages as T-Mobile and Sprint’s combined technologies will allow the new company to lead the charge in a true nationwide 5G network faster than anyone else. With the merger the combined companies would live under the T-Mobile name and brand, with John Legere as the CEO and Mike Sievert as the COO. With the two companies coming together it’s also “expected” that costs on plan prices will be significantly reduced and that competition would pick up for consumer and business customers, as T-Mobile and Sprint together would have a combined customer base that is much closer to that of AT&T than the two do separately. With the merger now agreed upon all that remains is to see if the approval comes through.