A lot of buzz is still surrounding the merger between the two smallest of the four major wireless carriers, but the rumors flying around say that a Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile is more or less happening. Whether or not that holds true is still unknown, but everyone is free to make their own speculations and opinions on the matter. T-mobile and Sprint have both reportedly been openly accepting of the deal going through, which makes sense given that T-Mobile’s current CEO John Legere is slated to be the one that runs the new brand if it gets approved. At this point no official statements have been made in regards to if deal had been signed or not, and when or if that day ever comes, it will still have to be approved by the FCC which a lot of people are still skeptical about.
The issue from the consumer stand point is that things will get all muddied up should the FCC let this deal go through. T-Mobile customers are worried that service will start to decline and Sprint customers are worried about coverage so it seems, but for anyone who is trying to keep an open mind and is just generally curious about what the coverage might look like if the two giants came together, this map below illustrates what consumers might be able to expect if we ever saw both Sprint and T-mobile join forces.
Whether or not the DoJ and the FCC are likely to approve the merger is anybody’s guess at this point. The nice thing about the map here is that we get a decent little picture of what we could expect for coverage. The map clearly illustrates out which areas are locale that Sprint and T-mobile both cover independently and which areas are locale that the coverage between both companies overlap each other. The map certainly doesn’t make any claims that all colored areas here are places where coverage would be present, but there are some areas where T-mobile doesn’t currently get coverage now that Sprint does, which could end up benefiting those who use T-Mobile in those areas. We know there are many users out there on both sides who don’t care for this deal, but it could very well end up a very good thing for customers on both ends.