A new study published by Repeater Store and SurveyMonkey of over 1,000 mobile users in America shows that a strong majority (67.2%) of consumers think the government should approve the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.
Here are some of the other highlights:
- AT&T stands to lose the most from a proposed merger. AT&T customers were the most interested in switching to a combined Sprint and T-Mobile. 36.0% of respondents expressed interested in switching to the merged carrier.
- T-Mobile subscribers were the strongest proponents of the merger: 74.3% think the merger should be approved.
- T-Mobile subscribers also believe they stand to lose the most: 19.2% of those surveyed believe their service will degrade as a result of the merger.
- Sprint customers feel that they stand to gain the most: a 54.2% majority feel that their service will improve if a merger goes ahead.
The FCC has collected over 300 comments filed regarding the merger, and it has been the topic of recent debate in the cellular industry. While these comments filed with the FCC run the gamut of accusatory, investigative and otherwise, the general cell phone user seems to overwhelmingly be in favor of this merger.
While Sprint customers seem to feel they have the most to gain, T-Mobile customers seem to be the largest customer carrier majority in favor of the merger.
Also interesting in the research is the different carrier groups that would be most likely to switch carriers post-merger.
12.3% of AT&T users were “extremely” or “very interested” in dropping their service and moving to a merged T-Mobile-Sprint service. This is especially interesting since AT&T has a 93 million customer base.
AT&T clearly stands to be the biggest loser in a T-Mobile-Sprint merger as over 11 million customers polled were willing to switch service after the merger. This could have a lot to do with the age customer’s skew in each carrier or have something to do with coverage area combination.