The big news this week was Sprint pulling out of the attempted merger with T-Mobile. Now since this news was first rumored back in December of 2013, our readers have either hated it or loved it. So we thought we’d do a poll on the merger being called off. Now everyone knows I’m a T-Mobile subscriber, and I’ve been both for and against this merger. I can see both the advantages and disadvantages of this merger, but wasn’t quite sure which one outweighs the other.
The rumor was Sprint was going to buy T-Mobile, and replace Dan Hesse with John Legere as CEO of the combined company. Along with the company being rebranded to Softbank USA. Now most of that has been called off, and Dan Hesse is out as CEO, with Brightstar’s Marcelo Claure the new CEO – starting on Monday. Legere has stated in the past that Sprint does have a ton of spectrum, but obviously they aren’t using it to their full potential. Which is why it would have been good for T-Mobile customers for the two to combine, as T-Mobile needs more spectrum. But against the merger is the fact that we’d be left with three carriers instead of four. Yes I know we would have three strong carriers instead of two strong ones and two weaker ones. But the FCC doesn’t want three carriers, they want four.
All along I’ve had a tough time thinking that the FCC would allow Sprint to buy T-Mobile and merge with them. Especially after they rejected AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile in 2011. But talks have stopped now. So that leads us to the question this week, what do you think about the decision from Sprint to no longer be in talks with T-Mobile? Did you really want them to merge, or not?