The same phenomenon is happening in Brazil, more and more mergers among the operators, and I guess it will happen in most of the countries.
How many competitors does the market supports? How many mergers will we have in the telecom area?
For example, TIM and Telefonica have been talking for ages about a merger. America Moviles, already has a big chunk of operations in Central and South America.
Are we observing that the previous national monopolies will become international oligopolies? Or is it back to Ma Bell all over again?
Why would Sprint be the logical choice? The networks are completely incompatable and there would be little that Sprint could do to bring the three networks together to function as one. When Sprint bought out Nextel, it nearly put both companies under due to the incompatable networks and the customer service that Sprint brought to the table.
With that said, AT&T would be the logical choice since both companies use the GSM network, and would have a much easier time bringing all of the subscribers under one umbrella, not to mention that it would increase the network footprint of both companies.
Anyone think Verizon will spring for MetroPCS or US Cellular in order to keep up?