Deutsche Telekom to buy Sprint?

According to German paper Der Spiegel, Deutsche Telekom is considering going shopping and acquiring US carrier Sprint Nextel, with a view to merging it with its own T-Mobile USA.

It’s a fascinating rumour but I’m not entirely convinced that this isn’t just an idle ‘what if?’ scenario from some Deutsche Telekom exec. Granted, for anyone considering an acquisition of Sprint, it’s a great time – the company’s been struggling of late, its share price is down and it could be snapped up for a bit of a bargain price. It would mean a big step up for T-Mobile in the US, catapulting it into the top tier of operators.

But the major reason to say no to such a deal? The tech. T-Mobile uses GSM, while Sprint Nextel uses CDMA and is trying to get a WiMax network up and running at the same time. The integration problems don’t put any acquisition in a favourable light.