It would also allow them to start offering LTE before the Big 4, giving them a huge marketing advantage at being the first to have a true 4G handset technology. It would definitely increase their appeal on the Stock exchange and you would have a company that is almost as big as Tracfone , US Cellular and the combined sub base of Virgin and Boost mobile.

And they would have more leverage with handset makers.

Cost control? Most definitely. Makes way more sense then some stupid merger ideas floating around like Tmobile taking over Sprint? (Yeah, a smaller gsm company is going to take over a bigger cdma/iden one that has been losing millions of customers for years. Nice idea. )

Verizon didn’t become number one by finding new customers, it merged them. Why not do that on a somewhat smaller scale?

The main thing is which corporate culture will be the dominant one. I think it will be Metro. Which is unfortunate, as they have a rep for not giving a royal rat’s tail about customer service. And they are really draconian to their indie reps.

Cricket is the kinder and gentler of the two but by how much, I don’t know.

Sprint corporate culture destroyed Nextel’s previous exemplary reputation after their merger. Sprint has been paying for their disastrous move for the last half decade.

If there is one textbook example of how not to do a wireless merger, it is the Sprint Nextel one. LOL.