T-Mobile Has Already Begun Backpedaling from Its Commitments on 5G, Jobs

Today, T-Mobile asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to roll back several conditions that the CPUC imposed when approving the company’s merger with Sprint in April, including the timeline for T-Mobile's 5G rollout, the requirement that the company add 1,000 new employees in California over the next three years, and the standard used to confirm that T-Mobile is meeting its minimum network speed obligations.

"Last week T-Mobile Chief Executive Mike Sievert was telling the public that the job cuts the company was making were just part of the transition process and that T-Mobile would create 5,000 new positions in retail and engineering in the next year," said Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton. "Today, we find out that behind the scenes the company is telling California regulators that it can’t meet the requirement to create 1,000 jobs in the next three years. It turns out that the new T-Mobile is a lot like the old T-Mobile – all talk, no action."

T-Mobile cites the economic disruption created by the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for backing off its jobs commitment. However, in its 2020 first quarter earnings report last month, T-Mobile bragged that, "As the economy rebounds, New T-Mobile is uniquely positioned as the growth company in telecom and has already started laying the foundation for the future."

In a filing to the FCC in 2018, CWA estimated that the merger was likely to eliminate 30,000 jobs, with authorized retailers and prepaid stores being hit the hardest. Sadly, these predictions on job loss have begun to come true. In April, reports surfaced that T-Mobile planned to close 1,500-2,000 Metro by T-Mobile stores and last week the company revealed that it has already cut 241 positions at the former Sprint headquarters in Kansas.