After flirting with each other for years, T-Mobile and Sprint have decided to merge and form a super phone company. The new company will operate under the name T-Mobile, and it will be valued at about $146 billion. That’s according to CNN, but the original news was first reported by T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who tries very hard to make everyone think he’s a cool dude and therefore announced this enormous business deal on Twitter:
The CNN story notes that T-Mobile and Spring previously talked about merging in 2014, but they worried that the Obama administration would take issue with two big wireless providers becoming one bigger wireless provider, especially since we already have Verizon and AT&T throwing around their weight. With Donald Trump and his band of cronies running the show now, though, it’s the perfect time for rich people to do whatever they can to get even richer.
Unfortunately, this merger probably won’t be good for those of us who aren’t rich people. As noted by Gizmodo, T-Mobile and Sprint have been able to get away with better plans for unlimited data or fewer hidden fees because they’re not as big as their competitors at Verizon and AT&T. As the new Super T-Mobile, they won’t feel as much pressure to keep consumers happy, especially since it will now be even harder for other companies to compete with these big guys. Basically, all wireless companies are evil, and we should be wary of anything that seems like a good idea to them.
Anyway, the companies say they’re doing this to build a new nationwide 5G network, so at least we’ll be able to access the websites T-Mobile allows us to access (thanks to reduced net neutrality protections) a little faster.