The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint is moving into its final stages. News reports of job losses in T-Mobile’s prepaid business are doing rounds. Three people familiar with the company confirm that T-Mobile has laid off staff in their prepaid business – Metro by T-Mobile. The number of fired employees is still unknown.
These layoffs come amidst a time of turmoil for T-Mobile and Sprint employees. The FCC and the Department of Justice in 2019 have approved T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint for $26 billion.
T-Mobile and Sprint also managed to avoid a lawsuit by 13 state attorney generals, who have raised issues with the merger.
The attorney generals had raised concerns with the merger, citing reduced competition in the wireless communications market. This would lead to higher prices which will negatively impact US consumers.
Sprint raised their merger requests to the US lawmakers and regulators. Executives from T-Mobile and Sprint, at the time, had stated that there would be no reduction in their respective workforce. Though, the companies left some room to remove duplicate positions amid restructuring in the newly merged entity.
The company has not confirmed the exact figure of these layoffs in Metro by T-Mobile. However, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union expects that this figure could potentially run in the thousands.
Immediately it cannot be said that these job losses in T-Mobile’s prepaid business are the result of the impending merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. Though, the CWA has stated that the merger could potentially put 30,000 jobs at risk.
CWA has conducted an analysis and identified a potential figure of 11,800 prepaid jobs at T-Mobile and Sprint, another 13,700 jobs in the postpaid vertical and around 4,500 jobs in the headquarters of these organizations which are potentially at risk.
Metro by T-Mobile had also undergone major reshuffles last year. T-Mobile retail chief Jon Freier and CMO Matt Staneff replaced Metro’s long-serving prepaid chief, Tom Keys in 2019. During his exit, Keys has confirmed that the company performance was not as expected. He held a belief that the business could see improvements with a restructuring effort.
T-Mobile acquired MetroPCS in 2012 – which was the fifth-largest mobile telecommunications network in the United States. T-Mobile renamed MetroPCS to Metro by T-Mobile in 2018 with a vision to serve 18 millions consumers with 10,000 branded retail sites.
Post Sprint merger, Metro by T-Mobile will remain with the newly merged company. On the other hand, Dish Network will take over Sprint’s prepaid operations.
The Department of Justice has approved the merger on the condition that Dish Networks will acquire around 10 million Sprint prepaid customers and will work in the US market as an MVNO of T-Mobile. Later Dish Networks can acquire a 5G license and provide service as a full-fledged 5G wireless communications provider.