T-Mobile and Sprint Announce Merger

After years of painstaking negotiation processes, cell phone carrier giants T-Mobile and Sprint have decided to officially merge.

In a press conference held on Sunday, T-Mobile Chief Operating Officer John Legere said that the combination of the two companies will “build the world’s best 5G network.”

The new company, taking on the name of T-Mobile, will be based in Bellevue, Washington. While Legere will continue serving as the CEO for the merger, Marcelo Claure, the CEO of Sprint, will serve on the board of directors. Looking ahead for the plans of the merger, the new T-Mobile seeks to innovate better 5G technology to spur American jobs and utilize innovation to provide better connectivity across the world.

“This combination will create a fierce competitor with the network scale to deliver more for consumers and businesses in the form of lower prices, more innovation, and a second-to-none network experience – and do it all so much faster than either company could on its own,” said Legere. “As industry lines blur and we enter the 5G era, consumers and businesses need a company with the disruptive culture and capabilities to force positive change on their behalf.”

A merger between the two was attempted in 2014, but Sprint abandoned its plans to buy T-Mobile. In response, Legere persisted on Twitter, urging Sprint to unify with T-Mobile before “the Sprint bus crashes.”

Join T-Mobile now and jump off the Sprint bus before it crashes! #framily #unleash

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 6, 2014

In order for the deal to be finalized, it still has to be approved by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission, to determine whether or not the merger is in the public’s best interest and whether it violates any crucial antitrust laws. If the merger is finalized, which both companies anticipate a completion by the first half of 2019, there would only remain three major cell phone carriers in the United States – T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T.