FOR MOST T-MOBILE AND
SPRINT CUSTOMERS
Sprint customers will get a T-Mobile bill, but
that transition may take a few years. If you
are a T-Mobile customer, you might not see
many changes. However, because the goal of
the takeover is to roll out a next-generation,
5G cellular network, subscribers of both are
ultimately expected to get faster service.
WHAT ABOUT PREPAID CUSTOMERS?
As part of the deal, Dish will get Sprint’s prepaid
Boost Mobile customers. Dish has committed
to building its own cellular network, but it will
use T-Mobile’s for now, so customers aren’t
supposed to see service quality drop.
HOW STRONG IS DISH?
That has yet to be tested.
Sprint is an existing company with more than 40
million customers. Dish would start from scratch
building a network that will cost billions of
dollars. It gets only 9 million customers from the
deal and will have to fight to win more.
As for the network, Dish already owns spectrum,
or airwave rights, but hasn’t been using it. The
deal would give Dish additional airwaves that
travel far and work well in rural areas. Dish
is supposed to put those to use in its own
network, but it has to rely on T-Mobile’s network
in the meantime.
Dish says it will offer service to 70% of the U.S.
population by 2023. But while it’s billed as 5G,
Dish is promising speeds that are only slightly
higher than what’s typical today.