T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N) shares rose 6 percent in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, after the company was created by the merger of MetroPCS Communications and Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTEGn.DE) U.S. unit T-Mobile USA.

Shares of what is now the fourth-largest U.S. wireless service provider were up 96 cents at $16.54 from an adjusted closing price of $15.58.

MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA, which had combined 2012 revenue of $24.8 billion, merged to pool their spectrum resources to compete better with bigger and smaller rivals.

“It’s a good debut,” said Hudson Square Research analyst Todd Rethemeier. “They

both had good first-quarter results, so we think there’s more room for upside.” Rethemeier set a price target of $24 for the new stock.

However Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche was more cautious because T-Mobile has been losing customers for a long time. “T-Mobile US may have a difficult time turning the ship and bringing customers back to it as quickly as hoped,” Fritzsche said in a research note.

T-Mobile US said the combined company ended the first quarter with about 43 million customers. This compared with roughly 55 million for third-ranked Sprint Nextel (S.N).

While the company plans to shut down the MetroPCS network eventually, it will keep both the T-Mobile brand and the MetroPCS brand, which is targeted at cost-conscious consumers who pay for calls in advance.

T-Mobile US Chief Executive John Legere said one of its first priorities will be to expand the MetroPCS brand outside of existing markets.

Because of the planned network shutdown, Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said most of his savings target of $6 billion to $7 billion from the deal will not involve traditional cost cutting such as layoffs. “There will definitely be some job reductions,” Carter told Reuters, but added that “overall there will be job creation.”

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Courtesy Reuters.com