Sprint is planning to buy T-Mobile, according to The Wall Street Journal. The $20+ billion deal would combine the nation’s third and fourth largest carriers. Sprint is reportedly “studying regulatory concerns and could launch a bid in the first half of next year.”

If Sprint and T-Mobile do merge, they would have a combined customer base of nearly 100 million, which is much closer than they are separately to Verizon’s 119 million and AT&T’s 108 million.

AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile two years ago, but the deal was eventually shut down by antitrust concerns from the Justice Department. The same thing could very well happen again this time around, but only time will tell. The last thing the U.S. carrier industry needs is less competition, so maybe going from the “big four” to the “big three” isn’t the best idea.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Nothing makes a better gift than an iPhone, but if money’s an issue this Christmas, consider going to T-Mobile. Just in time for the holidays, T-Mobile is dropping the upfront price of an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c to just $0. You can afford that, right?

Yesterday, AT&T announced new Mobile Share Value plans that were pitched as making subscriber’s monthly rates cheaper if you already own a smartphone.

It seemed like a pretty honest move. Most carriers bill you a set monthly that includes a fee designed to pay off your smartphone’s full prive over a two year period, which is common knowledge. What isn’t common knowledge is that on most carriers, even if you bring your own smartphone to your contract or fully pay off your device, the carrier will continue to bill you for that smartphone subsidy in perpetuity. It’s super sleazy, so AT&T’s move seemed like a refreshing dose of honesty.

That’s not how T-Mobile sees it, though.

When the iPad Air went on sale, it was discovered that T-Mobile was offering 200MB of free data per month to customers who bought the tablet on its network. What a steal! On top of that, you can walk into T-Mobile and pay $0-down for a 16GB iPad Air. T-Mobile all of a sudden looked like a much more attractive carrier choice.

But if you think you can just walk into a T-Mobile store, pay nothing up front, and walk out with a new iPad and free data plan, you are sadly mistaken.

T-Mobile is bringing its “Uncarrier” strategy to tablets with the upcoming launch of Apple’s new iPads. Yesterday we reported that T-Mobile will offer 200 MB of free (yes, totally free) data to iPad Air and mini owners.  But that’s not all.

According to Apple’s website, T-Mobile is now offering 200MB of free data each month with the purchase of one of the new iPads announced today — the new Retina iPad Mini or the iPad Air. This is in contrast to the three other carriers, which have plans that start at $15 or $20 — though they come with more data.

When you’re the head of one of the nation’s four largest mobile carriers, you’ve got access to a lot of phones. You’ve probably got to try them out all the time. But do you ever have access to so many phones that you forget which is which, or that the iPhone in your hand is not, in fact, a Samsung Galaxy phablet?

Today T-Mobile announced that it is shuttering grandfathered plans to focus solely on its newer Simple Choice plans. The ‘UnCarrier’ sent out a letter to customers today, and discounts are being offered on newer plan rates for legacy customers who still need to switch over.

If you’ve ever traveled internationally and been unlucky or unknowing enough to keep on using your smartphone’s data as if you were still in the fatherland, you’ll know that watching a single YouTube video on a foreign network can result in a few hunded dollars being added to your bill.

International roaming charges are so insane that the European Commission is actually planning to abolish them altogether. But looks like T-Mobile beat them to the punch: the uncarrier is now promising free global data in over 100 different countries, no extra charge.

Evidence is mounting that Apple plans on releasing the next iPhone on September 20th. The latest proof? T-Mobile, the latest official American iPhone carrier, has told all of their employees to not even bother asking for any days off between Friday, September 20th and Sunday, September 22nd.