T-Mobile, Sprint finalising merger plans: report

T-Mobile and Sprint have long been planning a merger that seems to be finally nearing realisation Bloomberg reported.

Deutsche Telekom, which controlled T-Mobile, has started taking strides in its plans for the merger. The company reportedly wanted an all-stock deal with Sprint to continue to apply T-Mobile's current marketing strategy after the two carriers are combined, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported.

When the merger was rumoured months ago, SoftBank - Sprint's parent company - had reportedly not pushed the subject due to strict US Federal Communications Commission rules that prohibited rival carriers from conspiring during airwave auctions.

According to the report, final measures were being put in place to complete the merger and the all-stock agreement would eliminate transaction costs with a deal like this since both companies would be exchanging stock and not actual money.

The news comes after the introduction of Sprint's new promotion to encourage customers to switch over.

Sprint has long played catch-up with its rival carriers - AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. According to a report in OpenSignal last year, Sprint took last place in all categories ranging from speed to latency.