US wireless carriers T-Mobile and MetroPCS have announced plans to merge in an effort to increase their  network coverage and combine resources to roll out 4G LTE service.

T-Mobile and Metro PCS

The deal would involve MetroPCS (the smaller of the companies) actually buying T-Mobile and then giving a controlling stake to Deutsche Telekom, the German carrier that currently owns T-Mobile. The new company would continue to operate under the T-Mobile name.

The merger isn’t a done deal yet. MetroPCS shareholders will have to vote to approve the measure, and US regulators will look at the proposal.

Last year AT&T planned to take over T-Mobile, but the plan was canceled after the US Justice Department tried to block the deal for antitrust reasons. The new merger could be more palatable to regulators, since the combined T-Mobile and MetroPCS would still be just the fourth largest US wireless carrier… a role T-Mobile currently fills.

Right now T-Mobile has 33 million subscribers, but the combined company would have 42 million… which is still less than Sprint, AT&T, or Verizon have.

Combining T-Mobile’s GSM network with the MetroPCS CDMA network could prove a bit tricky. But eventually the plan is to close down Metro’s CDMA network and use the spectrum that frees up for 4G LTE coverage.

via All Things D

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One reply on “T-Mobile, MetroPCS announce merger plans”

  1. I think you need to check some details there, the plan is not to “move all customers to a 4G LTE network based on CDMA technology” but from your source “T-Mobile will use MetroPCS’s CDMA spectrum for LTE service”

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