Sprint Nextel an example for AT&T, Verizon?

Inexpensive, unlimited wireless phone service plans could drive further consolidation in the wireless phone business, as industry leaders AT&T and Verizon Wireless watch customers hit hard by the recession defect to cheaper services from Leap Wireless, MetroPCS Communications and even Sprint Nextel Corp. This is the rationale behind the rumor that AT&T may lunge for Leap, a wireless carrier that has been taking customers from the big carriers via inexpensive, unlimited cellular plans. However, despite the relatively affordable price tag of $2.7 billion, which would be less than $1,000 per subscriber, the move isn't without pitfalls, most notably the expense of converting Leap's 3.8 million subscribers to AT&T's competing technology. Such pains are what has ailed Sprint Nextel since its creation in the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel, which used competing technologies. However, the company may have finally found a means of turning its lemon of a $35 billion deal into lemonade via inexpensive, unlimited wireless plans.