(Image: ZDNet)
This week, T-Mobile[1] US and Sprint announced their intention to merge[2], which -- if approved -- would create the second largest mobile telecommunications provider in North America[3] behind Verizon Wireless and ahead of AT&T.
Must read: What is 5G? Everything you need to know[4]
The technical details of how the two companies intend to merge their infrastructure and build out an entirely new 5G network[5] are not entirely worked out yet, but one company's technologies will almost certainly become the center of it all -- Qualcomm's[6].
Verizon[7] is already a Qualcomm shop, and Sprint is a Qualcomm shop. So, it is probably a foregone conclusion that, for the newer 5G tech deployment, the new T-Mobile will also be a Qualcomm shop.
Read also: ZTE slapped with export restrictions by US Commerce department[8] | First ZTE, now Huawei: In the age of Trump paranoia, no Chinese phone vendor is safe[9]
AT&T, like the existing T-Mobile, uses different technologies for its 4G implementation: LTE, and GSM for voice, which is compatible with global standards.
Qualcomm's CDMA, compared with GSM and LTE, is used only in a small number of markets globally, which includes Japan. Many of these mobile data networks are currently being phased out in favor of LTE.
AT&T[10] and T-Mobile, up until now, have gone the path of global compatibility. AT&T has been partnering with Huawei -- the largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in the entire world -- on creating a global 5G standard.