Reply #10: in addition, remember how T-Mobile USA came into existence, they too were the results of mergers..

[stockholmer]

The 3 of the 4 main regional GSM carriers (VoiceStream, Omnipoint, and Aerial) were merged into VoiceStream in 2000, then in 2001, Deutsche Telekom (a true global giant in telecom) bought the 4th regional (Powertel), then bought Voicestream and brought all 4 together under the T-Mobile USA banner by 2002.

The biggest prize left for merger is the Sprint/Nextel firm. This will be the last chance to stop a dual-pronged monopoly from coming to form an unstoppable cartel in the USA wireless market.

The only trans-regional traditional carrier of any size left is US Celluar, and I fully expect Verizon to swallow them up by 2013.

The 2 main 'all-you-can-eat' unlimited carriers (Metro PCS and Cricket 'aka Leap') are in final merger talks (on and off since 2007 Metro PCS has been rebuffed by Leap in a takeover bid, but the offer is being raised). This will leave only 1 national company in the unlimited call realm.

In terms of prepaid, you already have only one, TracPhone.

Of the remaining small regional carriers ,Cellular South, Movida, Appalachian Wireless, whats left of Alltel (already was 90% bought by Verizon a couple years back), Alaska Wireless, nTelos, Qwest Wireless, and Bluegrass Wireless will be all be gobbled up by Verizon, as these are all CDMA.

The other 3, (Cincinnati Bell Wireless, GCI Wireless and Simple Mobile - Simple is a virtual network reseller within T-Mobile) are GSM, and will be bought by AT&T.

Lastly, SouthenLINC, which is the last regional carrier left, is also the only one who uses the Sprint/Nextel iDEN technology, so who ever gobbles up Sprint/Nextel will take them out.

So, at the end of the day,(I would say 2014 or 2015) you will have 2 choices for regular national cellphone carriers (Verizon or AT&T) with Sprint/Nextel probably going to Verizon, IMHO.
Then one choice for national 'all you can eat' (Metro PCS/Cricket), and one choice for national prepay, TracPhone. So much for 'choice'.

This list, btw includes every single wireless phone carrier over 100,000 subs in the entire USA. And yes, I have worked in the global mobile phone industry for years.