Do you have to switch to the new T-Mobile now?

And another is gone. With the Ministry of Justice signed today Sprint Acquired by T-Mobile for $ 26 Billion, the number of wireless service providers nationwide has so far fallen to three. But the newly formed company has the potential to be much more than Sprint and the oppressed to the scrapped T Mobile were before. In terms of network coverage and number of subscribers, it could become a major rival of Verizon and AT & T.

The merged mobile operator – who will use the name T-Mobile – will have a combined total of 135.8 million subscribers, not far behind the 158 million Verizon, number one, and the 155.7 million AT & T And perhaps more importantly for these 135 million customers, the merged operator, with its wider coverage, will have every interest in setting up the first usable 5G network covering the entire country .

And the merger – which has been ongoing for a year and should be finalized by the second half of the year – comes at the beginning of the season of new phones before the holidays, with devices Samsung, Apple, Google and others. The combined operator may very well offer these phones as an incentive to switch to another provider.

Here is what we know today about the new mobile phone company that will help you decide if you need to switch to T-Mobile.

What will the combined wireless coverage look like

For 4G coverage, Verizon and T-Mobile are neck and neck with a 94% coverage of the country, according to OpenSignal, a mobile badytics company. AT & T comes next with 89%, Sprint reaching 88%.

And the new T-Mobile has announced its intention to eventually offer coverage to 99% of Americans.

What about the combined 5G coverage

5G is a more interesting story. The main US carriers offer 5G coverage on a range of spectrum bands, and the band mix of each operator determines their coverage. At one end is the "sub-6", which is extremely efficient and reliable for providing connections over long distances, both inside and out. At the other end is the millimeter wave, or "mmWave", which has a higher capacity, but much shorter distances. And mmWave's reception is more intricate on the inside, with seemingly everything – walls, glbad, hands – able to block the signal.

T-Mobile is powerful on both the sub-6 long-distance side and the short-distance mmWave side. Sprint's strength lies in the spectrum of mediums between the two extremes. The combined spectrum of T-Mobile and Sprint should therefore provide broad, fast and reliable 5G coverage, especially in rural areas, who have fallen behind cities in accessing fast connectivity.

As part of the transaction, T-Mobile has agreed to aggressively deploy 5G to 97% of the American population in three years. And in six years, that number increases to 99%. In rural areas, T-Mobile will have 5G coverage for 85% of the population in three years, then 90% in six years. And T-Mobile has also agreed to provide mobile broadband service in rural areas as part of this agreement.

Reading in progress:
Look at this:

Testing the Sprint 5G on the LG V50

11:22

Where are the major carriers now with the deployment of 5G

At present, Sprint has activated its 5G networks in five metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Kansas City. T-Mobile has 5G networks in six cities: Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York.

In comparison, AT & T has 5Gs in 20 cities in 11 states – from California to North Carolina – but instead of city-wide coverage, its initial deployment is via points hot 5G that create pockets of wireless networking. Verizon is live with 5G in Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Providence, Rhode Island.

(If you want to keep track of whether or not 5G is available in your area, Ookla monitors the worldwide deployment of 5G networks via its Speedtest.net service.With its handy interactive map, you can explore at the city level for see who deploys or not the 5G.)

What about Dish and a fourth fourth national mobile operator?

As part of the approval process, T-Mobile announced that it would sell some of Sprint's badets at Dish satellite company, creating a fourth national carrier. Dish will get spectrum, Sprint's Boost and Virgin Mobile activities – as well as prepaid customers – and access to T-Mobile's wireless network for several years to help launch its own wireless service.

All major carriers are trying to attract subscribers, offering affordable data packages to a free one year subscription to Netflix.

Sprint has a compelling "Switch to Sprint" program that gives you up to $ 650 to cover operator switching costs, such as the buyout of a phone contract. T-Mobile has a similar offer.

Reading in progress:
Look at this:

What is the speed of T-Mobile's 5G network? We took it for a test …

2:25

And T-Mobile should have a lot of devices – especially 5G compatible phones and maybe the Samsung Galaxy Fold – He can hang in front of you to encourage you to register.

If it was not already the case, I would be shocked by T-Mobile, it does not have very soon a handful of tipping offers to make you sign up.

If you go now

With the merger, T-Mobile promises a network that will provide a national service at a predictable price: as part of the transaction, T-Mobile has agreed to maintain its stable prices for three years. With its broad coverage, the promise of keeping prices stable and the strength of 5G, the new T-Mobile should no longer be an alternative choice when buying a US mobile operator. If you wish to change, the moment may be well chosen.