T-Mobile, Sprint Merger Offers 10 Years Free 5G, New $15 Plan If Approved

The $26 billion Sprint T-Mobile merger that won the approval of the Department of Justice and FCC has come out with a lucrative offer promising 10 years of free T- Mobile 5G for all American customers if the deal gets through.

The offer looks like the company’s latest effort to drum up public support for the still-pending merger. The new offer is explicit that if the deal fails, the new plans will also vanish.

The T-Mobile deals spice up the merger’s appeal to customers via the free offer and cheap data initiatives to address the anti-trust concerns still in the air.

According to a press release, the merged company, the “New T-Mobile” will have two more extra offers if a full-fledged merger happens. They are also made appealing as much as the season’s cyber Monday deals.

· Free wireless service and devices at low prices to 10 million disconnected households in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

· Prepaid plan of $15/month with unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data.

But 2GB can burn fast on the 5G network.

FCC approval and dissenting note

The tenuous majority with which FCC favored the merger had FCC Commissioner Brendan Stark’s dissenting note. It said the merger would lead to “three 900-pound gorillas that would divide up the market, increase prices, and compete only for the most lucrative customers.”

But FCC Chairman Ajit Pai had a pro merger stand and said: “The merger will provide New T-Mobile with the scale and spectrum resources necessary to deploy a robust 5G network across the United States,” and make it competitive with Verizon and AT&T.

Although regulatory hurdles are out, the T-Mobile merger still faces the challenge of lawsuits from states citing consumer concerns. That may cause delay or the legal challenge itself can be dismissed as the complaints were filed before the DOJ and FCC gave the approvals with their accompanying conditions.

Impact on Boost Mobile

Meanwhile, the Boost Mobile to be divested by Sprint and taken up by new owner Dish Network may hurt its 2.5 million customers out of the 9.3 million user base, according to the erstwhile founder of that pre-paid wireless carrier.

Peter Adderton founded Boost in 2000 and was acquired by Sprint Corp in 2005. Boost will go to Dish Network as part of the T-Mobile-Sprint deal.

But Adderton notes that Boost as a wireless telecommunications brand catering to low-income customers will see major cost-cutting in the hands of Dish.

Adderton told Fox Business that Dish’s cost slashing exercise may force out a big chunk of prepaid customers from whom the provider may not see much money.

Comparisons are expected after the changes as consumers check whether the offers match up to peers like Verizon wireless customer service or the past support from a Sprint store.

But that speculation was denied by a spokeswoman for Sprint: “Dish plans to aggressively grow the Boost business from day one. Upon close, all existing and future consumers will have award-winning Boost mobile customer service. Any speculation to the contrary is false.”