Change is in the air after Xavier Niel’s failed bid for T-Mobile

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The US telecoms sector looks much as it did two years ago. Verizon and AT&T have 190 million wireless retail connections between them, dwarfing the 85 million shared by Sprint and T-Mobile. While the consolidation efforts of Iliad and Softbank may have amounted to nothing, the US telecoms sector is unlikely to return to the status quo ante.

There is another potential dealmaker in the shadows: Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish, the US satellite TV group. As Jennifer Fritzsche, an analyst at Wells Fargo, puts it, the question on everyone’s lips is: “What is Charlie up to?” Regulators are expected to look more favourably on a tie-up between a wireless player and a satellite company, a combination that is also being pursued by AT&T and DirectTV.


Change is in the air after Xavier Niel’s failed bid for T-Mobile