A Sprint/T-Mobile US merger would be an effective...

A Sprint/T-Mobile US merger would be an effective challenge to the Verizon Wireless-AT&T “duopoly,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said Monday on Bloomberg TV. “We all need better scale and capability,” he said. “The question starts to be, how do you take the maverick and supercharge it? We either need more spectrum and capability and a lot more investment, or we need consolidation.” Speculation about possible discussions between Sprint majority owner SoftBank and T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom has continued in recent months, though experts have said a merger between the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. carriers could encounter trouble with federal regulators (CD Dec 17 p1). Sprint is certainly not T-Mobile’s only consolidation option, and “from a standpoint of companies consolidating to get better scale, I'm open to looking at options,” Legere said. Sprint and T-Mobile did not comment. Sprint separately announced Monday that its 4G LTE network has expanded into 40 additional markets, including Milwaukee and Salt Lake City. The carrier’s 4G LTE network now covers 340 markets (http://bit.ly/1hEC7pk).