Telecom providers Sprint and T-Mobile have once again resumed talks on a possible merger which marks the third time they've done so in the past few years. This current round of discussions is still preliminary, so they may fall apart just like they have in the past.
The previous round of talks resumed in May 2017, continued through September, and was called off in early November since the companies were unable to "find mutually agreeable terms." While Verizon is still the wireless king in the United States, this deal is sleighed to go after AT&T.
Should the merger go through, the resulting business would be larger than AT&T. This would give Sprint's Japanese owner, SoftBank, and T-Mobile's German owner, Deutsche Telekom, an excellent position in the American market. One potential issue with the merger is the ongoing antitrust case surrounding AT&T's requested acquisition of Time Warner.
Despite supporting the repeal of Net Neutrality in favor of less regulation, the Trump administration and the FCC have ironically opposed this merger.
The Department of Justice's trial has also been going on for a month, although not much has come of it yet. Should it go through, AT&T would become one of the most powerful telecom and media companies in the world.
A Sprint and T-Mobile merger would create a larger company than AT&T at present time. While we don't have many details on the Trump Administration's view of the merger, the result of the AT&T trial should serve as a litmus test going forward.