T-Mobile Has Axed 9,501 Employees Since Its 2018 ‘Job Creating’ Merger Was Announced

Former T-Mobile CEO John Legere repeatedly promised in print that the Sprint merger would result in a massive surge in new jobs. In a rambling missive that took aim at critics of the deal, who predicted job losses, the charming potty-mouth CEO proclaimed that critics were lying, and that the deal would be job positive from day one" and every day thereafter.

Yeah, about that.

The latest tally by industry watchers indicates that 9,501 employees have lost their jobs since the two companies merged, with thousands of those cuts happening before the deal ink was even dry. This is of course what always happens with growth for growth's sake" consolidation, but it's rare we look backward to meaningfully address such claims lest we learn something from experience.

9,500 jobs have now disappeared across T-Mobile and Sprint since their deal was first announced in 2018. That's 12% of the total back then, a figure that would be high even if the companies had not promised to be job creators. The message from Legere, designed to win over competition authorities and opponents, had been unequivocal. This merger is all about creating new, high-quality, high-paying jobs, and the New T-Mobile will be jobs-positive from Day One and every day thereafter," he said.

T-Mobile isn't quite the competitor it used to be either, now that the total number of wireless carriers have shrunk from four to three. Gone are the truly disruptive uncarrier" announcements, and in their place is another perfectly ordinary wireless giant that tries its best to avoid competing directly on price, as it tries to find creative new ways to impose annoying fees.

It's 2023 and the uncarrier" still can't secure its wireless network from hackers, is still trying to fight a wrist slap fine for playing fast and loose with user location data, and is still lying about its 5G coverage to grab government subsidies it may not deserve.

The merger certainly made former CEO John Legere an even wealthier man, and it certainly paid out for investors as the huge spectrum holdings allow it to fend off the other two industry giants in the 5G coverage race. But as somebody that has covered telecom mergers for a long time, it's still positively stunning how little we learn from experience where megadeal employment promises are concerned.