Using the HHI [1], this would be classified as a highly concentrated industry, and the proposed merger increases the concentration quit a bit. I'd expect this to have a rough road with antitrust regulators.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.justice.gov/atr/herfindahl-hirschman-index" rel="nofollow">https://www.justice.gov/atr/herfindahl-hirschman-index</a>
I'll be happy if John Legere stays on as CEO. I was working at a T-Mobile technical support call center when he came on, and it was really amazing how quickly and effectively he turned the company around after becoming an independent company
I was on Nextel which I adored until they merged with Sprint and a dark pattern in their technical support flow tricked me into relinquishing a favorable data plan I had grandfathered in. I switched to T-mobile to get away from Sprint, so this news was somewhat concerning, but it sounds like they're keeping Legere on as CEO and hopefully retaining a fair amount of T-mobiles culture, so I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
As a Sprint customer, I think this deal will be good for competition in the wireless market. Both Sprint and T-Mobile struggle to compete with AT&T and Verizon in coverage, so hopefully the merger will allow T-Mobile to invest in greater coverage and speed.
If there was one CEO who worked really hard in the industry, it is John Legere. From one man marketing to creating a cult around him, he worked his ass off to get T-Mobile to where it is today. I wish more CEOs are like him- in the front lines, working hard and setting a great example for their employees.
It’ll be interesting to see how this works out. They’re combining a fast GSM network with an abysmal CDMA one. The customer experience is going to be rather inconsistent I would think.
This is great news for OEMs - one less carrier to work on. Sprint was a pain to work with - their network requirements were the worst and they had horrible bloatware no one used that required to be extensively tested.
I don't know how this helps T-Mobile be more competitive. Sprint uses an incompatible network, has a horrible brand, and its customers hate their carrier. Seems to me like this would slow down a 5G network implementation.
It would have made much more sense for T-Mobile to merge with AT&T given the GSM heritage of both wireless networks. This is one situation where the sum of the whole is probably less than the parts. Bleh!
This deal should be blocked unless they're forced to divest spectrum to someone like Comcast or Charter. Comcast and Charter already have a partnership for wireless and are doing MVNOs, so they might be interested in it. Competition has been working well with 4 players in wireless, and prices have come down.