The proposed T-Mobile and Sprint merger is bad news for American workers and consumers. While T-Mobile and Sprint are making vague promises that the merger will create thousands of jobs in the U.S., the data and the companies' track records tell a different story.
The merger would result in job loss across the country and increased prices for consumers, while still leaving rural communities without access to high-speed broadband.
Bad for American Jobs and Workers
30,000 jobs nationwide would be eliminated because of the merger – about 25,500 jobs due to overlapping retail store closures and another 4,500 jobs due to duplicative functions at corporate headquarters.
Workers’ wages will suffer too. The proposed merger will leave retail wireless workers worse off by reducing the number of national wireless retail employers from four to three. Fewer employers means reduced competition for labor, which leads to lower wages and reduced benefits. Collective bargaining can help counter this effect, but T-Mobile and Sprint have long histories of violating workers' rights and sending jobs overseas.
Learn more about why the merger is bad for American jobs and workers.
Less Competition and Higher Prices for Consumers
The proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger would hit customers where it hurts - their wallet. Eliminating head-to-head competition that currently exists between T-Mobile and Sprint would mean higher prices for consumers, especially price-conscious customers of pre-paid options like Boost (Sprint) and MetroPCS (T-Mobile).
The merger will also increase concentration in the national and local markets for mobile voice and data services and prepaid wireless services. These markets are already "highly concentrated" according to Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission guidelines, and the change in concentration resulting from the merger is large enough to trigger concerns that the merger is "likely to enhance market power" under those guidelines.
Rural Communities Left Behind
The proposed T-Mobile and Sprint merger won't help rural Americans who need access to affordable, reliable high-speed broadband service.
While T-Mobile and Sprint claim that the merger is essential to the companies' ability to build a nationwide 5G network that would bring broadband to rural communities, a close look at the proposal for the New T-Mobile tells a different story.
Sprint's current network is mostly concentrated in urban and suburban areas and adding it to T-Mobile's current network will not result in gains in rural areas. The future capacity that Sprint brings to the network is in the mid-band spectrum which can only transmit wireless signals over short distances. Any significant increase in coverage would require the construction of many more cell towers, which is not cost effective in low-density rural areas.
Learn more about why the merger won't bring broadband to rural America.