Deutsche Telekom is planning to buy MetroPCS and merge it with T-Mobile
T-Mobile has already been involved in a carrier merger, in which the small US company was the one being acquired by AT&T. That deal fell through, but now T-Mobile may find itself in the face of another merger – except this time it is the acquiring company. Thanks to its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile may soon be merging with MetroPCS.
Rumors began circulating earlier today, and Deutsche Telekom responded with this statement: “Deutsche Telekom is holding talks with the listed company MetroPCS with the aim of operating its subsidiary T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS within one company.” The deal isn’t yet final, and it is said that the companies’ boards will be meeting tomorrow to discuss and finalize the deal.
Personally, it seems to me that the combination of the fourth and fifth place US networks would make quite a bit of sense. First off, the combined subscriber count from both carriers would reach about 42.5 million, which brings them quite close to Sprint’s 56 million.
Perceptive readers may note that T-Mobile and MetroPCS use GSM and CDMA respectively, which are different wireless technologies. However, MetroPCS has mainly a 2G CDMA network, and the rest of its network is 4G LTE. T-Mobile is currently attempting to expand its LTE network, and MetroPCS owns both spectrum and existing network infrastructure that T-Mobile could take advantage of.
Hopefully, we will find out tomorrow that both companies decided to go through with the deal, as a stronger T-Mobile with boosted LTE coverage would be great, especially for the rumored next Nexus device.
[TmoNews]
