Last week, some rumors had started circulating that MetroPCS might be looking to find itself a buyer, and Sprint, T-Mobile, and even Dish Network might be some of the companies it had been in discussion with. In the comments, many of you seemed hopeful that T-Mobile might be able to improve its position among the big carriers in the States by scooping-up the carrier’s assets. We’ve got good news for you then, as T-Mobile just announced that both companies’ boards have approved the deal.
Between the two of them, the two carriers have around 42.5 million subscribers. As T-Mobile starts getting serious about LTE, the experience MetroPCS has had deploying its own network should come it quite handy.
But what of CDMA? MetroPCS hasn’t been running its 2G/3G network on a system compatible with T-Mobile’s. The future is LTE, and the plan is to get existing MetroPCS subscribers on a shared LTE-based network as they upgrade their phones in the years to come.
Of course, the government will still have to approve the deal, but this sounds a lot less objectionable than the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger.