Earlier this year, Sprint (S) finally shut down the Nextel platform after years of technical incompatibilities within its network. That's why it's so peculiar that The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Sprint is considering bidding for smaller rival T-Mobile (TMUS -0.08%) to put more pressure on AT&T (T -1.37%) and Verizon (VZ -0.68%). SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, known as an ambitious leader, is reportedly pushing this possible deal that would be valued at more than $20 billion.
The biggest challenge that such a merger would easily be regulatory scrutiny. Seeing the domestic wireless industry move from four large national carriers to three could have detrimental impacts to competition and, ultimately, the consumer. That's especially true as aggressive as T-Mobile has been with its "Un-Carrier" ways, which have sparked many competitive responses from its larger rivals. If T-Mobile were to get swallowed by Sprint, consumers would likely suffer for it.
In this segment of Tech Teardown, Erin Kennedy discusses Sprint's latest move with Evan Niu, CFA, our tech and telecom bureau chief.
