The recently announced intention of T-Mobile and Sprint to merge has generated a lot of talk -- and a lot of opinions on the merger, both for and against. The new, proposed company would operate as T-Mobile, and would be the third-largest wireless carrier in the United States.
Those opposed to the merger -- which must gain regulatory approval before being consummated -- argue that the merger would reduce competition in the telecomm marketplace. Such reduced competition, the argument goes, would ultimately be bad for both consumers and innovation.
At Wireless Watchdogs, though, we believe the opposite will be true -- and we're excited at the potential inherent in this merger. We think that T-Mobile's history of being the "un-carrier" will continue as it wages price-based and service-based warfare on AT&T and Verizon, who are the current wireless carrier leaders.
The Promise? #5gForAll -- And What That Might Mean
Perhaps more importantly, we think that the new company, with its combined resources and capabilities, will speed the buildout and adoption of 5G networks in the United States. With data rates and latency that are in the range of 10x better than 4G/LTE, 5G will be a transformative technology in the growth of the IoT technosphere. Connectivity via LTE has already allowed for a vast range of both B2B and B2C IoT devices and implementations, and impacted the way we live and work -- so it stands to reason that connectivity via 5G will allow for an even-greater amount of innovation from IoT developers, who will be freed from the practical data constraints of LTE to better utilize the growing amount of sensors and devices available to build ever-more-useful solutions.
But none of that happens until 5G networks are widespread enough to be of general use in the market -- and we firmly believe the T-Mobile / Sprint merger will help deliver those networks, and the innovation they promise, sooner rather than later.
