It’s unusual to see The Star’s editorial board tiptoe around a big issue. The board usually states its positions resolutely and decisively.
But the issue of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger seems to have smothered The Star’s normally edgy voice. At least that’s the indication from today’s lead editorial, titled, “Is a T-Mobile merger the last best hope for Sprint to survive?”
I could tell from that headline that the editorial would be an exercise in equivocation, and it was.
The reason for the equivocation is local jobs. At its peak, in about 2004, the Sprint World Headquarters Campus at 119th and Nall had almost 15,000 employees. The number is now down to about 6,000, and it’s about as likely to go back up as it would be for The Star to go on an editorial hiring spree.
Here are a couple of key paragraphs from the editorial:
“Sprint’s name will likely disappear if the agreement is approved by regulators. That’s worrisome in a region that sorely lacks a nationally-recognized corporate presence.
“Yet we can’t oppose the merger out-of-hand. The real truth is this: Any chance for Sprint’s long-term presence in our area, even in a diminished, unnamed capacity, likely requires a merger with a stronger company such as T-Mobile.”
That makes sense, but later in the editorial, the writer put on his or her rose-colored glasses, saying:
“Already there’s a furious argument about the impact of a merger on competition: Some believe prices will go higher with just three national carriers, while others argue that a strengthened T-Mobile could force costs down across the industry. We’re not ready to endorse either conclusion.”
OK, class, those of you who think cellphone fees would go down, please raise your hands. Do I see someone in the back of the room there raising his hand? Oh, sorry….Of course, you can go to the bathroom.
Rather than wring its hands about those 6,000 jobs — which are at risk in any event — I’d rather see the editorial board take the blinders off and consider what is best for consumers everywhere.
On that count, The New York Times was unequivocal in two articles — its lead editorial and an Op-Ed commentary.
Citing both companies’ pledges that prices would go down, hiring would go up and profits would increase, The Times editorial said: “All that’s missing from this list of promises is permanently blue skies.”
Love it…
The editorial takes a clear-eyed view of the prospect of prices rising, saying “…becoming much larger could change the financial calculus at T-Mobile, encouraging it to raise prices to lift profits and pay off Sprint’s debt” — which stands at a jaw-dropping $32 billion. (Makes McClatchy’s $700-million-plus debt pale by comparison.)
Tim Wu, a law professor who specializes in antitrust and telecommunications, struck an even harsher note. Here are a couple of key paragraphs from his Op-Ed piece:
“T-Mobile, the self-proclaimed “uncarrier,” has done an admirable job of attacking termination fees, abusive contracts and other mistreatment — often outperforming regulators as an agent of consumer protection. Sprint, meanwhile, has come to excel in its role as a price-cutting maverick. Allow me to advertise for Sprint: Did you know that it offers a service for $60 with an unlimited data plan?
“In short, competition has actually worked the way economists say it is supposed to, forcing firms to improve quality or face elimination. But it takes competitors to compete, which is where blocking mergers comes in. That’s a point well demonstrated by the case of the airline industry, where the government let the mergers happen. Over the last decade, Delta was allowed to buy Northwest, United to buy Continental, and American to buy US Airways, leaving behind just three majors. What happened next demonstrates the “curse of triopoly” in all its terrible glory.”
…I hope that future Star editorials will swing around to elevate the “curse of the triopoly” ahead of those 6,000 tenuous, local jobs.
Even if those jobs disappear and bulldozers have to clear away all those plain-jane buildings at 119th and Nall, the Kansas City area will continue to prosper. And that end result would be preferable to millions and millions of cellphone consumers getting gouged even worse than they are now.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
After 20 years with Sprint I dumped it and went to T-Mobile. Over the past few years Sprint’s customer service had gone from very good to horrible at all levels. I had two phones with unlimited and my monthly was over $200.00. I switched to T-Mobile, customer service is incredible and my monthly bill, including buying two phones, is $91. Cell reception is better as is call quality. Hopefully, if nothing else, I’m hoping T-Mobile’s customer service model remains and that they fire the entire Sprint customer service and start from scratch.
Same here. I had a bad experience with Sprint several years ago and never did care for their in-store, customer-service system and ever-changing personnel. I had to pay $200 or so to get out of a contract, but it was well worth it, not to have to fight the battle any more. I’ve been very satisfied with Verizon.
I’d have to agree with the Stars point that the T Mobile merger was the last best hope for Sprint to survive. The backbone of the system their network runs on is completely archaic and they have too much debt to properly finance building out an up to date network. They probably would’ve faded away without being bought-which would’ve left us with 3 major carriers anyways. Time will tell what it will mean for consumers cell phone bills but one positive I’ve read is it will be a catalyst to breaking up another industry with little competition in most areas-internet providers. Apparently this merger will bring 5G technology to consumers much sooner-Hopefully by 2020. This will make your cell phone as fast as the internet in your home and will most certainly help bring home internet prices down.
Wu, in his commentary, addresses the 5G issue and says its’s phony-baloney. Personally, I don’t know anything about it, but here’s what he had to say…
“They (Marcelo Claure and John Legere) say that they will still challenge Verizon and AT&T with low prices and have promised an enticing, Trump-tailored menu including the spending of billions of dollars on a 5G network, which they link to ‘three million new jobs,’ while also presumably paying off some of Sprint’s $33 billion in debt.
“…The last and most absurd of the arguments for approving the merger is that it will help America ‘win the race to 5G’ (that is, to be the first to build an advanced, fifth generation network) against a shadowy Chinese and Korean menace. (The Japanese and Germans, the actual owners of Sprint and T-Mobile, are spared villainous status this time around.) The whole idea of a ‘race’ is a way to lobby Congress and regulators by stoking Strangelovian fears of a ‘5G gap.’ “
Fitz, I’m with you and John on your opinions about Sprint’s poor customer service. And its Ward Parkway store is the worst. If you go there, you can count on waiting at least an hour before they call your name. And then you’re likely to be stuck there for another hour. Only reason I’m still with Sprint is because my wife refuses to terminate the contract.
The very store where I was continually frustrated…and seldom saw the same employee twice. Next door, at Verizon, at least one person — a woman who appears to be a manager — has been there several years.
One night, my son had to have been there for at least three hours simply to get a new phone.
I gave up the ghost when they lied to me when I tried to buy a pre-owned iPhone I spent a month trying to get them to honor the advertised price to no avail and then got sick of the lies and dumped the phone service. I still had a tablet there and then they repeatedly overcharged me on the tablet. Then they repeatedly lied to me in both the stores an on online chats. I had several employees hold themselves out as managers, I had folks in chat sessions tell me they were updating my record so that I could call into customer service to have it escalated, (it wasn’t, something i found out after repeated attempts to find someone who could actually speak English), and I even had one guy claim to be a guy I had previously talked to, but when I went into the store 10 minutes later, the guy who also claimed to be a manager said the guy was on vacation and couldn’t have answered the phone. Every communication at all levels with rare exception involved deceit and dishonesty and when I did make headway with one employee, the next step erased the progress.
The buildings are cooler than “plain Jane.”
Every brick is recycled.
Every milestone brick is placed with a identification…millioninth, two millionth etc.
Every brick also has the name of where it was laid originally.
There are a lot of very, very cool things about the Campus.
Sprint and Sprint-Nextel never really had money.
They spent borrowed money.
Bill Esrey and Ron LeMay deserved to go to nail. Mark Ernst saved their asses. Forsee was clueless.
Dan Hesse really tried. But too much debt limited his talent to lead.
Ericsson was brought to run the network.
They gave up on morphing the CDMA and the iDEN (pishyo-talk). Literally blowing billions.
SoftBank tried to dump them twice without telling anyone in Overland Park!
There are talented people there that will likely lose their jobs.
After one found of layoffs, Sprint promised decent severance packages.
Three months later they reduced the severance to $100 for the very year worked!
Sprint has been leasing office space at the Campus for years.
The CWA/Bell Companies own the networks.
They will continue to makes billions after billions consistently with streaming.
There are streaming plans AT&T will introduce that will compete favorably will competition.
AT&T will bribe and try and at the Trump Administration in court for Time Warner.
The Time Warner copyrights will not be bought immediately, so FCC approval is not needed.
T-Mobile employees were n Germany are Guild employees.
The same is transitioning to the US.
Same with Time Warner, Spectrum and Comcast.
The CWA and IBEW are continuing with this time-consuming process gaining new members.
I Pray for my friends at Sprint..
Their jobs and other contractor jobs will disappear!