T-Mobile US is closing down a number of Metro by T-Mobile stores, according to the National Wireless Independent Dealer Association. The association said that Metro by T-Mobile issued 120-day termination letters to 5-15 percent of stores owned by large dealers, as well as stores at the of their lease or which were low performers. TMONews said that the report comes after Peter Adderton, founder of Boost Mobile in Australia and the US, tweeted that T-Mobile was closing down 1,500-2,00 stores selling Metro by T-Mobile. FierceWireless noted sources which said the closures were not related to the covid-19 pandemic, but to the T-Mobile/Sprint merger which closed on 1 April.
T-Mobile provided a statement after the reports were first published, saying it was always optimizing its retail footprint as a normal course of business.
Adderton said the latest closures could affect 6,000 people. Boost is transitioning to using the T-Mobile network, and as long as Boost is selling its services, there’s no reason for T-Mobile to keep Metro stores open next door to the Boost stores, he added. “A Boost customer is a T-Mobile customer,” he said. Boost Mobile came to T-Mobile with Sprint. Talks are now advanced to sell the operations to Dish Network, as part of the agreed conditions for regulatory clearance of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger.
