Transatlantic Telecom Deals Heating Up Again

TechFlash reports: A report emerging from the United Kingdom could have wide-ranging implications on the wireless business in the United States, especially in the Seattle area where Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA unit is based. The Telegraph reports that Deutsche Telekom has hired investment bankers to explore a possible $10.6 billion bid for Sprint Nextel.

The tie-up—which the Telegraph reports could occur in coming weeks—would bring together the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the U.S.

T-Mobile has been struggling to hang onto customers as it faces intense competition from Verizon as well as AT&T, which has received a boost as the exclusive provider of the iPhone in the U.S.

T-Mobile's customer churn rate rose to 2.2 percent in the second quarter, while the number of new customers at the carrier also slowed.

CNET reports that a merger of T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel would be tough to pull off given the different wireless-network technologies used by the companies. T-Mobile operates a GSM network, while Sprint operates on CDMA and Nextel uses iDEN.