Deutsche Telekom is considering the future of its US mobile unit, T-Mobile USA, according to the Wall Street Journal, with options including an IPO, a partial spinoff of the business, or a merger with a US rival.
The WSJ claims that T-Mobile USA’s parent has recently held discussions with a number of banks such as Deutsche Bank about underwriting an IPO for the unit. The article claims the company could also spin-off some of the business, which would carve it into a separate entity with its own balance sheet, or merge it with a rival, although the report says this is a less likely option.
T-Mobile and France Telecom’s Orange have agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture that would grab the top spot in Britain with a market share of about 37 percent, ahead of current leader O2, owned by Telefonica, and Vodafone.
T-Mobile USA has only a 12 percent market share, well behind rivals Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel. It has also been the subject of concern surrounding the inferiority of its network compared to competitors. Last September T-Mobile USA was reported to be in talks with Clearwire and MetroPCS regarding accessing extra network capacity to beef up its high-speed network.
Clearwire is starting 2010 with 25 4G wireless markets up and running. Its network is available to about 30 million people. By the end of 2010, it expects to be in 100 markets with the potential to serve 120 million subscribers.
By contrast, Verizon is hoping to reach 25 to 30 markets and 100 million potential customers with its LTE-based 4G network by the end of 2010 with more cities to be added the following year.
Meanwhile, the Coalition for 4G in America (MetroPCS, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, Clearwire, Rural Telecommunications Group, and Access Spectrum, filed a letter with the FCC urging the Commission to expeditiously auction the Upper 700 MHz D Block for commercial use to promote widespread availability of competitive broadband services.
