T-Mobile CEO implies T-Mobile could someday merge with a cable company

Despite his company's failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has always maintained that consolidation in the wireless industry is inevitable. "In five years, we will think it comical that we thought about the industry structure as the four major wireless carriers," he said. But for the first time, Legere expanded on his thinking and raised some interesting -- and perhaps controversial -- possibilities for the future. "I've always said it's not a matter of if; it's when and how. And now I'm going to add and who."

As it turns out, that "who" could take the form of an existing cable provider. "As content and entertainment and social are moving to the Internet, and the Internet is moving mobile, these industries, the adjacent industries, are in the same game that we’re in," Legere said. "So whether it’s what you see Google doing, what you see the social media companies doing, or as you start to see cable players trying to move content -- Wi-Fi integration with mobile networks, et cetera -- these are individual customers that are looking at both offer sets. I think you need to think about the cable industry and players like us as not competitors, but potential partners and alternatives for each other in the future."