The $26.5 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint appears to about to happen. Bloomberg reports this morning that Dish Network will pay a total of $5 billion to create a new prepaid wireless provider.
$1.5 billion will go toward a seven-year MVNO deal with T-Mobile that will allow Dish to sell wireless service using the T-Mobile network. For three-years T-Mobile will provide support to Dish to ease the transition of prepaid subscribers from a merged T-Mobile-Sprint to Dish.
Dish cannot flip these assets or turn the agreement over to a third party for three years , a measure to protect T-mobile interests . The remaining $3.5 billion to be paid by Dish to T-Mobile will go toward the acquisition of spectrum by the satellite content provider.
