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Survey: Just 22% of Americans Approve of Sprint T-Mobile Merger

A new survey from market research and consulting firm HarrisX found that just 22% of Americans support the planned $23 billion merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. History has made it painfully clear that when you reduce the total number of large competitors by one the incentive to seriously compete on price is dramatically reduced (go ask a Canadian friend). Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts believe the deal could eliminate anywhere between 10,000 and 30,000 jobs as redundant retail, management and support positions are inevitably eliminated.

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According to the full HarrisX survey (hat tip, Fierce Wireless) 59% of Americans said they needed more information to decide on the topic.

That said, the firm noted that when it "presented a list of arguments for and against the merger that have been used publicly," fully 56% of respondents came out in favor of the deal.

The problem: most of the "publicly" used arguments in favor of the deal simply aren't true. The claims that the elimination of competition will improve competition and lower prices simply isn't supported by historical precedent. And claims that the two companies must merger to ensure more even deployment of next-gen 5G wireless have also been widely derided as false.

The survey also suggests to readers that the merger could "create more new jobs than T-Mobile and Sprint currently have," something numerous Wall Street analysts have stated is demonstrably false.

Still, the survey makes it pretty clear that it shouldn't be too hard to convince existing, loyal Sprint and T-Mobile customers to support the deal. Especially, apparently, when you tell them things that aren't true.

“Perhaps the strongest case for the merger comes from directly impacted T-Mobile and Sprint customers, who are also the most price conscious among post-paid subscribers," said HarrisX CEO Dritan Nesho in a blog post on the survey. “What we see from the findings is U.S. consumers are open to the benefits of a T-Mobile and Sprint merger, and the two companies have a real opportunity at convincing us of its merits. But consumers want more information and need to better understand the impact of new technologies like 5G. And, above all, consumers want prices to stay low.”

Granted many of the younger Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers may not be old enough to remember how megamerger promises (especially in telecom) tend to be hollow, and the reduction in competitors traditionally eliminates any real incentive to compete. They're about to get a crash course in the chasm that exists between pre-mega-merger promises of amazing "synergies," and the less glamorous post-deal reality.

Most recommended from 42 comments


BlueSim
join:2018-02-05
Vancouver, WA

6 recommendations

BlueSim

Member

I'm Opposed; Period.

quote:
The claims that the elimination of competition will improve competition and lower prices simply isn't supported by historical precedent.
I personally remember US West being acquired by Qwest, Qwest being acquired by CenturyLink, GTE being acquired by Verizon, Verizon selling the local systems in the area to Frontier, TCI buying Columbia Cable, AT&T buying TCI, AT&T Broadband being sold to Comcast, and Blockbuster buying several local video store chains before their collapse. Every time that exact claim is made and every time the exact opposite happens. Every time, period.
quote:
Granted many of the younger Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers may not be old enough to remember how megamerger promises (especially in telecom) tend to be hollow, and the reduction in competitors traditionally eliminates any real incentive to compete.
IMO it doesn't need to be a telecom industry merger, just look at what happened with the Albertsons-Safeway merger, especially what happened to Haggen's (to summarize: the latter, which was a higher-price local chain, couldn't scale their operations to handle the locations they acquired via post-merger spinoff, went bankrupt, and Albertsons-Safeway ended up acquiring them as well).

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

6 recommendations

Packeteers

Premium Member

our representative democracy is dead

it's all about the benjamins, not about voter approval

thanks citizens united vs fec supreme court ruling
for destroying what was left of our democracy

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

3 recommendations

tshirt

Premium Member

it didn't make sense last time...

....and it still doesn't.
Sprint needs to forget this and began running the company as an ongoing stand alone using the assets they have
If necessary sell some of the spectrum hoard to finance system upgrades and fill in weak coverage areas

Anon34f4e
@72.183.76.x

2 recommendations

Anon34f4e

Anon

Remember Cingular???

What people seem to be forgetting is when AT&T gobbled up Cingular wireless and how that impacted Cingular users (to which I was one). My service went from great to crappy overnight and customer service went down the toilet as well. I've been both a Sprint and T-Mobile customer and I'm actually in favor of this deal. DSL reports would have you believe that 10-30K jobs will be lost as a result of this merger. I'd like to know where they're getting these numbers from. Yes, I'm sure there will be some job loss as it relates to combining some of their retail locations or even closing some down (there is literally both a Sprint and T-Mobile retail store across the street from my office). There's a chance it won't happen. Most retail stores are leased and not owned and having to pay additional to break leases for any offices that are obtained doesn't make fiscal sense. Not too mention, T-Mobile's pledge to hire 5K veterans would ADD jobs not cut them. DSL Reports seem to be making this a divisive conversation, rather than informative.