http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2018/04/29/t-mobile-and-sprint-announce-plans-to-merge/ >T-Mobile and Sprint, the nation’s third and fourth largest wireless carriers, announced a roughly $26 billion merger on Sunday that could dramatically reshape the U.S. telecom industry while testing the appetites of consumers and regulators alike for further corporate consolidation. >The deal marks the latest attempt by T-Mobile, operated by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, and Sprint, run by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, to combine forces as they seek to amass subscribers and challenge the national footprints of AT&T and Verizon. The move comes at a time when the industry is racing to deploy the next generation of ultra-fast wireless technology, called 5G.