T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS have finally completed their merger, with the New York Stock Exchange starting to trade shares in the combined company yesterday.

The new entity has around 43 million subscribers and generated $25.8 billion in combined revenue in 2012.

Shares in the merged company – trading under the ticker ‘TMUS’ – hovered around the opening price of $16.52 during its first day of trading, hitting a low of $16.01 and a high of $16.99.

The T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands will continue to operate separately but will move to a common network infrastructure. The population coverage of the combined networks will be 301 million people.

T-Mobile USA president and CEO John Legere — who will lead the new company — said the combination of the companies “creates an even stronger disruptive force in the US wireless market”.

The board of directors of the new company will have 11 members, including two from MetroPCS. It will be chaired by Tim Höttges, current T-Mobile USA CFO and deputy CEO.

MetroPCS carried out a one-for-two reverse stock split and made a $1.5 billion cash payment to its stockholders — around $4.05 per share. It acquired T-Mobile’s capital stock from Deutsche Telekom in exchange for 74 per cent of its common stock on a pro forma basis.

In terms of the future, the new company has a five year goal of compound average revenue growth of 3-5 per cent. The cost synergies created by the merger are projected to be between $6 billion and $7 billion.

The transaction had seen some opposition from MetroPCS shareholders, although this was addressed through changes to the proposal made earlier this month. The deal received approval from MetroPCS shareholders last week.