Fr, I always remember seeing phrases along the lines of “T-Mobile, a distant third competitor” all the time and sprint was literally on the verge of bankruptcy. If you think sprint merging with T-Mobile was bad, just imagine what it would be like if they had just gone bankrupt and AT&T/Verizon swopped in and bought large chunks of them for pennies on the dollar.

Remember, AT&T was against the deal and was part of a lawsuit to block it IIRC, so on that reason alone people should have supported the deal because any move AT&T figures is good for them is probably bad for people.