T-Mobile has been called an “attractive” share purchase option by Barclays, despite the fact that mounting evidence points to the carrier sitting out an apparently coming wave of mergers and acquisitions that promises to consolidate the industry even further and create cross-industry power players. Barclays has increased its guidance on T-Mobile’s postpaid net adds for the quarter thanks to patterns showing strong past interest in its unlimited plan versus those of its competitors. Prepaid net adds, meanwhile, are down mostly due to some power moves on the part of Sprint’s prepaid brands. All in all, T-Mobile looks poised to grow independently, but perhaps at a slower pace than companies that opt to take advantage of the Trump administration’s relatively relaxed oversight over M&As.
Though T-Mobile has been in talks with Sprint and rumors have been flying around concerning possible mergers with cable companies, but nothing solid has come of the events just yet. T-Mobile’s main possible partner, Sprint, has been talking to Comcast and Charter, though T-Mobile may end up joining in on those talks. There has not been much else in the way of anything more than rumors concerning T-Mobile participating in any merger and acquisition activity in the near future, and there is a serious risk of the wireless carrier losing three of its closest potential partners to an exclusive deal between the three of them. While T-Mobile looks as though it can continue to grow independently, the relative silence on the M&A front for the carrier has been putting pressure on its share prices.
As things stand for T-Mobile, a 5G rollout is the next logical step for the firm and promises to be relatively speedy, extensive, and cheap. A merger, however, would give the company access to a far wider spectrum portfolio, and make said rollout even more efficient. A merger with Sprint, in particular, would be great news for T-Mobile’s network; its wealth of low-band spectrum from a big take at the FCC’s recent incentive auction would make a good match to the tons of freed up higher-band spectrum that Sprint has left over from its defunct iDEN and WiMAX networks. Such a matchup would offer the chance to take a dual approach to 5G, combining small cells with larger, more traditional networks.