The Sprint Brand Is Not Long For This World

Now that Sprint and T-Mobile have their merger in the books, it looks like the Sprint brand is living on borrowed time. That won't come as a shock to anyone as the goal from the start has been to have T-Mobile absorb Sprint's network and customers, but in just a few months' time, we could see the Sprint consumer brand begin to disappear from storefronts, salesperson polo shirts, and bill headers.

So said T-Mobile boss Mike Sievert in a recent call to investors, as reported by the folks over at Fierce Wireless. With the merger between the two a done deal, the goal now is to move forward with both companies unified behind the T-Mobile banner. Sievert says that the company is looking to get the ball moving on this by mid-summer, which is actually a little later than originally planned.

"With COVID-19, we moved it out into the mid-summer instead of the early summer, and this is when we will essentially be advertising one flagship postpaid T-Mobile brand as well as operating a unified fleet of retail," Sievert said. "The retail piece is why we slowed down just a little bit."

Of course, Sprint customers are already seeing signs of that unification, as Sievert has noted a significant increase in roaming on T-Mobile's network from Sprint users. As Fierce Wireless points out, around 80% of existing Sprint handsets are compatible with T-Mobile's network, so the transition should hopefully be relatively painless for a lot of customers.

There's some more good news on that front, as Sievert also said that existing Sprint customers will have the option of sticking with their current Sprint plan even after the company's branding fades away sometime this summer. Those customers won't be forced to switch, though presumably, new customers and those looking to switch plans will only have T-Mobile's plans to pick from once the Sprint brand begins phasing out.