It’s taken quite some time, but the T-Mobile/Sprint merger is finally complete. April 1st was the deadline that both companies wanted to officially tie the knot, and they crossed the finish line right on time.
Sprint and T-Mobile; what’s next?
With the merger completed, the lawsuits and legal proceedings are through. The new company will just be known as T-Mobile, so the Sprint brand will start to be phased out. That’s going to be a long process, obviously, but expect it over the next few months and years.
John Legere is stepping away from the CEO role as well, with Mike Sievert taking the reigns. Legere will remain on T-Mobile’s board of directors for the next few months, but he’ll be departing completely by the end of the year.
Customers on both carriers won’t see any changes, at least not right away. Current carrier plans are still available, but T-Mobile says they’ll be able to start offering more aggressive rates over the next three years. Sprint has a cheap Kickstart plan for new BYOD customers that seems to still be available, and T-Mobile is offering a Connect plan for $15 per month with unlimited talking, texting, and 2GB of data.
Now most of the work has to be done on the backend, which will involve upgrading networks and getting the wireless side of thing functional for both new and old customers. The brand changes across retailers and stores will start to take effect soon, too.
Both T-Mobile and Sprint have promised that this should be a good thing for customers, with lower prices and a better network experience. Start the clock, and let’s see what happens.