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Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

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Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#12
post #6

and they acquired Mint, which almost certainly means my $30/mo prepaid plan will disappear soon.

Check out US Mobile. They follow a similar ethos of prepaid plan, but you don't necessarily even need to sign up for months at a time like Mint.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#15
post #4

DOE needs to stop approving mergers and acquisitions over $150 mil or so. Every such merger: Facebook/Instagram, Google/Youtube, etc has been a disaster.

Google and YouTube seems pretty good. YouTube is the most old school webby experience I have these days, although now in video form, now that the web web is so walled off.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#16
post #6

and they acquired Mint, which almost certainly means my $30/mo prepaid plan will disappear soon.

Check out US Mobile. They follow a similar ethos of prepaid plan, but you don't necessarily even need to sign up for months at a time like Mint.

I just switched to US Mobile and so far it looks very good. You can even choose between Verizon and GSM networks.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#17
post #6

and they acquired Mint, which almost certainly means my $30/mo prepaid plan will disappear soon.

Check out US Mobile. They follow a similar ethos of prepaid plan, but you don't necessarily even need to sign up for months at a time like Mint.

+1 for US Mobile. Very happy with them.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#18
post #4

DOE needs to stop approving mergers and acquisitions over $150 mil or so. Every such merger: Facebook/Instagram, Google/Youtube, etc has been a disaster.

$150 million is way too low today. Nearly every small acquirable company will meet that threshold. I do think that a limit could possibly be set though for companies with significant market share in the same sector. The Sprint acquisition was over $20 billion. Exxon's acquisition of Pioneer last year was around $60 billion.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#19

I will say, I'm not terribly fond of mergers on principle. However, based on my insight as a former customer and shareholder of the company, Sprint's goose was most definitely cooked to a crisp. If this merger had not happened, I could have seen Sprint file for bankruptcy, with Verizon and AT&T picking the carcass clean. I think folks forget how dire Sprint's straits were at the time, and this specific merger truly w…

A Sprint bankruptcy may have been inevitable, but Verizon and AT&T would have been forced to steer clear (a failed merger having made that inevitable).

The private market would have provided a bounty of suitors for Sprint if it couldn't recover from bankruptcy. It may have emerged in a far weaker fourth place, but it would still be around.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#20
post #11

Post merger I went from a $25/month t-mobile plan to a $15/month t-mobile plan. Not entirely apples to apples, but close. My spouse went from $30/month to $25/month on Verizon for more data. And there's lots of options at https://prepaidcompare.net/

Prepaid sounds great unless you ever want roaming, it’s either straight up not possible or priced in a way that makes it impractical.
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