Leap of Fate for T-Mobile and Dish

Fate may be conspiring to bring Dish Network and T-Mobile US together.

AT&T's $1.2 billion offer to buy Leap Wireless takes a strategic option off the table for both Dish and T-Mobile. That makes it more likely that the two will ultimately join hands. Dish seeks to use the wireless spectrum it has amassed through a partnership with an established national phone carrier. Dish lost the chance at one potential partner last month, when it abandoned efforts to buy Sprint Nextel S -3.57% . In light of that, another possibility was for AT&T, which needs more spectrum, to buy Dish. But the Leap offer and a January agreement to buy $1.9 billion in spectrum from Verizon Wireless mean AT&T has two deals in front of the Federal Communications Commission, making it unlikely to add a third, according to UBS. For T-Mobile, Leap's spectrum was considered highly complementary. And buying it would have helped the carrier expand its MetroPCS brand to more markets. With Leap now all but locked up by AT&T, T-Mobile may look more favorably at Dish's spectrum stash.