The telecom deals frenzy

The race to 5G is forcing the world's biggest telecom giants to consolidate. 5G is all about scale; when companies combine, they have more resources and capital to bid on spectrum and build out tools to get ahead. Orange and Masmovil announced they entered exclusive talks to merge their operations in Spain at a valuation of €19.6 billion ($21.7 billion). The companies said the merger helps them "gain the necessary scale and efficiency to undertake an ambitious and sustainable expansion of its FTTH [fiber to the home] and 5G networks." In the US, T-Mobile got ahead in the 5G race by acquiring Sprint in 2020. "We win in this business because of the capacity that we can generate on this network," said Neville Ray, president of technology of T-Mobile US. Ray said the capacity T-Mobile could build over a five-year period is 14 times what it would be without Sprint — a statistic he has previously touted.
“In 5G, it is T-Mobile that looks poised to lead," MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett said, citing T-Mobile’s mid-band spectrum scale, which came as a result of the merger.