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.
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.