On Wednesday, October 3, T-Mobile USA's parent company Deutsche Telekom AG announced that it has worked out a merger deal between T-Mobile and its smaller competitor MetroPCS Communications --- an agreement that will bring together the fourth- and fifth-ranking wireless carriers in the US.

According to the Deutsche Telekom announcement, the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger is largely about an LTE network and its underlying capabilities; with the deal also set to position T-Mobile as a "value" carrier which can offer substantial competition to bigger rivals like AT&T and Verizon.

In the opening paragraph of a Wednesday statement by Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS, announcing a "definitive agreement," three notable assertions were made --- firstly, the merger creating a "clear-cut technology path to one common LTE network"; secondly, the promotion of the merged carrier, which will retain the T-Mobile name, as the country's "value carrier"; and thirdly, the agreement providing T-Mobile with the requisite spectrum, scale, and finances to "aggressively compete with the other national U. S. wireless carriers."

About the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger, Mike Roberts - chief analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media - said in a recent research note that T-Mobile has clearly indicated that the merger agreement is "all about LTE, with the combined spectrum assets of the companies providing a path to 2 x 20MHz for LTE in many markets, double T-Mobile's current plans for 2 x 10MHz for LTE."