T-Mobile to Start Phasing Out Sprint Brand This Summer

Following its merger with Sprint, T-Mobile is aiming to unify its brand and will start phasing out Sprint branding this summer, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said at an investor event earlier this week (via Fierce Wireless).

Retail stores will be T-Mobile branded with Sprint's name removed, and the Sprint branding will also be removed from things like customer bills.

Sievert said that T-Mobile had always been aiming for a summer timeframe for the phase out of the Sprint branding and the unification of the new T-Mobile, and mid-summer is when the company plans to be "advertising one flagship postpaid T-Mobile brand as well as operating a unified fleet of retail."

Existing Sprint customers will be able to keep their current plans and won't need to swap over to T-Mobile's plans, but new customers will likely need to sign up for T-Mobile plans rather than Sprint plans as the Sprint brand is consumed by the new combined company.

T-Mobile has not announced a specific date for the transition, just later in the summer. T-Mobile had initially planned to begin implementing the changes in early summer, but postponed due to the global health crisis.

As The Verge points out, T-Mobile and Sprint have a long way to go to fully combine their networks, and some problems have already emerged. Sprint and T-Mobile have started combining their 5G networks, and unfortunately, Sprint's existing customers with 5G smartphones can't use them on the new T-Mobile network.