While Sprint and T-Mobile are considered two of the major carriers in the US, other carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are much bigger, which is why it isn’t surprising that both companies have revealed their intentions to merge with one another, thus creating a more powerful entity in the process.
That being said, a recent report from Fortune has revealed that in the meantime and until the merger has been announced, both carriers are expected to work together to bid on spectrum that the FCC will be auctioning off in 2015. The report claims that T-Mobile and Sprint will be pooling their money together and raise as much as $10 billion to bid on the 600MHz spectrum that the FCC will be auctioning.
The $10 billion war chest is said to be part of the financing deal that Softbank is attempting to acquire in their bid to buy as much as 50% of T-Mobile’s shares, and for business reasons, both carriers are apparently allowed to act as a single entity, which we guess in some ways could be looked at as a preview of things to come if and when the merger is successful.
AT&T themselves have reportedly set aside $9 billion for the spectrum auction as well, so if the report is to be believed, T-Mobile and Sprint’s collective war chest would put them on even footing as the larger carrier. Verizon’s own budget has yet to be revealed.