One of what should be the most protracted merger deals in the tech industry has finally come to a conclusion. That is T-Mobile and Sprint’s merger deal. The merger was first announced around April 2018 and has met several obstacles on the way which has prevented a deal from getting sealed all this while. 
It took almost two years after T-Mobile US officially announced its merger with Sprint as well a several hearing and legal negotiations with US regulators to get to this point. The deal worth $23 billion will result in a collaboration of the third and fourth-largest wireless carrier in the US in terms of subscriber base, forming a new company known as “The New T-Mobile”.
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The entities will equally join forces in terms of infrastructures to take on AT&T and Verizon Wireless the top 2 carriers in the US. Sprint’s spectrum and subscribers will be transitioned to T-Mobile. Sprint possesses a precious 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum which is ideal for 5G. The new T-Mobile will deploy this spectrum alongside T-Mobile’s own low-band 5G (600Mhz) for a nationwide rollout. T-Mobile says it will offer eight times faster speeds compared to LTE and expects the speeds to get up to 15 times faster over the next six years. T-Mobile also plans on using the mid-bands to cover Americans in rural areas.
As part of a deal made with US regulators, Sprint will sell its prepaid assets including Boost Mobile, its 9.3 million subscribers, more than 7000 retail stores, and its 800Mhz band spectrum to Dish Network, creating a new #4 carrier in the US. Dish will maintain these subscribers on T-Mobile’s networks as an MVNO under a seven-year lease while it develops and rolls out its own 5G network. Boost Mobile will be transitioned under the Dish Network brand. The new T-Mobile promise not to change its pricing for three years even with 5G offering.
As a result of the merger deal, T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere has stepped down earlier than the April 30 expiration date of his contract. The company’s President and COO, Mike Sievert has now stepped in as the new CEO of “The New T-Mobile”. Legere will remain as one of T-Mobile’s new board of directors. Legere assumed the position of T-Mobile’s CEO in 2012 and oversaw several massive growth with the company going from 33.3 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2012 to 86 million customers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019.
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