How T-Mobile-Sprint affects you

What you need to know about the planned deal.

The potential shift from four major U.S. wireless carriers to three could lead to big changes to your cellphone plans and service.

On Sunday, T-Mobile and Sprint announced plans for a

$26 billion merger, combining the two companies into what would be a bigger No. 3 network behind AT&T and Verizon. The deal still awaits regulatory approval and raises plenty of questions if you pay Sprint or T-Mobile for your service.

The new firm would represent more than 90 million retail wireless phone customers in the U.S., roughly one-third of the market, research firm Recon Analytics said. Here’s what we know:

❚ Service on both networks might get better: According to researchers at RootMetrics, Sprint and TMobile ranked third and fourth, respectively, in mobile performance during the second half of 2017. T-Mobile CEO John Legere has always disputed RootMetrics, preferring to cite crowdsourced information such as testing by research company Ookla rating T-Mobile as the fastest network last year.

With the two companies combining their networks, it’s possible service on both will improve. In a joint statement, the companies promise that existing customers with both services “will benefit from increased speeds, coverage, and performance as the two companies’ networks combine.”

❚ You might pay more: Currently, Sprint offers the cheapest unlimited plan of the group, at $60 a month for one line. On top of that, Sprint offers HD video streaming and the ability to use up to 10 GB of data when turning your phone into a mobile hotspot.

T-Mobile’s unlimited plan starts at $70, but if you want similar perks to the Sprint plan, you need to pay an extra $10 a month.

In their joint statement, Sprint and T-Mobile pledged to continue offering lower prices compared to rivals AT&T and Verizon but did not go so far as to clarify which of their respective current plans would be sticking around.

❚ What about perks? On TMobile, plans with two or more lines come with a free Netflix subscription. On Sprint, it’s music service Tidal (for six months) and Hulu, if your plan is eligible. It’s possible customers could wind up with a really strong deal on streaming services, but the companies have yet to confirm their fate.

❚ I’m on Sprint. Will my phone work on T-Mobile’s network? While T-Mobile and Sprint use different radio bands for their networks (Sprint on CDMA, T-Mobile on GSM), a merger shouldn’t complicate things too much as an increasing number of phones have support for both companies’ LTE networks.

And, the companies reached a roaming agreement in which Sprint users will gain access to T-Mobile’s network.

❚ Will this actually go through? Wall Street, for one, seems to be less optimistic with Sprint stock cratering nearly

14% and T-Mobile falling more than 6% Monday.