Comcast could acquire T-Mobile in the near future

All four major U.S. wireless providers will have to get into pay TV if they want to survive, according to Oppenheimer analyst Tim Horan. In a new research report, Horan predicts that, when the dust settles on another round of consolidation, the four surviving players in the wireless competitive landscape will be AT&T, Comcast, Sprint and Verizon. Horan sees Comcast or Charter Communications as the companies most likely to acquire T-Mobile and give Dish Network only a 10 percent chance of buying its way into the wireless market with a T-Mobile acquisition. T-Mobile has been linked to both Dish and Comcast in potential merger reports. But talks between Dish and T-Mobile have reportedly stalled over structuring a combined company and Comcast is reportedly not interested in buying T-Mobile. Sprint, now seeing increased support from its majority owner, Japanese carrier SoftBank, has also been reported as a potential M&A partner for T-Mobile and Comcast. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son fought against reluctant regulators in pursuing a merger with T-Mobile that he eventually abandoned. Son also offered to sell Sprint to Comcast and the deal reportedly garnered little interest.