A multi million dollar merger between US wireless operators Sprint and Nextel is still undecided despite unnamed sources saying the companies are close to the deal.
If the merger were to successfully progress, the combined company would be worth about $70 billion and have around 39 million subscribers, making it the third largest player in the US mobile market, behind Cingular and Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile would lag significantly behind, with 16.3 subscribers.
The merged entity would be considerably stronger in the business market and would be able to give Verizon a run for its money in the enterprise space.
The deal is said to be driven by the merger of competitors AT&T Wireless and Cingular in October of this year, which created the largest US mobile operator.
Rumours have said that Sprint is poised to pay around $36 billion for Nextel and swap 1.3 Sprint shares for every Nextel share.
However, Sprint has been integrating its fixed and mobile operations over the last year or so and any future mergers would cause another round of disruption at the company.
Consumer rights groups in the States are already protesting the merger, citing the damage that may be done to competition in the US mobile market.
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