There’s plenty to talk about when it comes to the deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. Will the FCC approve the deal? Will it benefit the customers? Will a merger save Sprint? All are good questions and all unfortunately don’t have answers at this point in time, but we may soon get closer to some of those answers as the summer comes up. Reports for the last week have been hitting all forms of media that both Sprint and T-Mobile have reached an agreement on the merger, in how much Sprint would end up paying T-Mobile’s majority owner Deutsche Telekom for the controlling stake in the company. The amount is apparently $40 per share, and should the deal get approved Sprint could stand to save a lot of money on costs across the board relating to Network, Equipment and Operations.
Cutting their own costs is not the only thing Sprint would need to do though if it wants to keep the customers it could potentially gain from T-mobile, it might need to end up cutting costs for customers as well if it plans to keep up with the prices that T-Mobile customers are currently paying for comparable wireless plans. T-Mobile subscribers already pay lower amounts for similar services than those at Sprint, and keeping the prices high even after a company merger and possible increased network performance, most likely wouldn’t sit well current Sprint subscribers considering the issues they’ve been having as of late due to all the major network upgrades that are in the process.
The network changes are for the better when you take a look at the bigger picture, which shows that Sprint is investing in its long term. Despite making things better in the long run, it has made call quality decrease in the short term for the Sprint’s current and former customers, as Sprint has reportedly lost 2.5 million customers over the past 5 quarters. If Softbank(who is the majority shareholder of Sprint) ends up successfully buying T-Mobile then lowering their prices to match T-Mobiles current costs could help to restore some faith in the customers they already have, not to mention keep a smile on the faces of the ones they could potentially be gaining.