Losing Lumen to AT&T could doom T-Mobile

AT&T is preparing a $5.5 billion bid for Lumen Technologies' consumer fiber operations. If that deal goes through, it would have significant implications for other players in the space—particularly T-Mobile. "One would have thought the logical buyer for Lumen fiber homes would be T-Mobile who presumably needs to play catch-up," wrote the financial analysts at TD Cowen in a recent note to investors.  But Bloomberg's new report on the possible AT&T/Lumen deal "suggests otherwise," according to the analysts. They contend that AT&T and Verizon are building "kingdoms" of fiber—areas of the country where they can converge high-speed wireline and wireless connections.