T-Mobile And Sprint Announce Merger, John Legere To Lead Company Towards 5G Future

The move is no doubt an attempt to better compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, America's first- and second-place wireless carriers respectively. T-Mobile is currently a distant third place when it comes to wireless subscribers, while Sprint sits in fourth place.

The combined company will be called T-Mobile, and it will be led by the T-Mobile's current executive team to spread more Un-carrier goodness. That means that John Legere will continue to serve as CEO. Mike Sievert, who serves as T-Mobile's COO, will also add President to his job title. The rest of the executive team will be composed of a mix from both T-Mobile and Sprint. As for current Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure; he and Softbank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son will serve on the new company's board of directors.

“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.”

"We intend to bring this same competitive disruption as we look to build the world’s best 5G network that will make the U.S. a hotbed for innovation and will redefine the way consumers live and work across the U.S., including in rural America," added Claure.

One of the big reasons for the merger was a need to push 5G nationwide. Neither company had the resources to build a nationwide network on its own, and T-Mobile argues that neither can AT&T or Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile says that its 200MHz spectrum combined with Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum will give it the "highest capacity mobile network in U.S. history."

“Going from 4G to 5G is like going from black and white to color TV,” added Claure. “It’s a seismic shift – one that only the combined company can unlock nationwide to fuel the next wave of mobile innovation.”

The transaction is expected to close by the first half of 2019... barring any objections from U.S. regulators.