T-Mobile completed its acquisition of Sprint Wednesday, officially lowering the number of significant mobile providers in the United States from 4 to three.
With the offer closed, T-Mobile‘s outspoken CEO John Legere stepped down, as prepared, and was replaced by business president Mike Sievert.
To win approval of the offer, T-Mobile promised regulators not to raise rates and to expand rural protection by building a 5G cordless network covering 97 percent of the US population within 3 years and 99 percent within 6 years. T-Mobile now should conduct that project amidst the Covid-19 pandemic
Critics of the offer have long argued that it will be difficult to hold T-Mobile to its pledges. “You need a scorecard to keep track of all the pledges T-Mobile has actually made to state and federal policymakers in order to get approval for its anticompetitive and anti-consumer merger,” says previous Federal Communications Commission lawyer Gigi Sohn. “Regulators do not have the resources to make sure that these promises are implemented, and when they try, effective corporations will do whatever they can to prevent keeping them.”
The effect of the pandemic on T-Mobile’s efforts depends on the length of time the crisis lasts in the United States, states IDC expert Rajesh Ghai. “If it’s a brief disruption I would think it will just momentarily decrease the rollout,” Ghai states. He keeps in mind that telecom and construction workers are generally thought about “necessary” under regional and state lockdown orders, which will lessen delays. A possibly bigger hazard, Ghai states, is reduced consumer spending that leaves T-Mobile