T-Mobile and MetroPCS Agree to Lackluster Merge

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS have agreed to merge, joining together two of the nation's largest low-cost wireless carriers.
  
Both companies have been struggling. Though each remains profitable, their smartphone offerings are lackluster (i.e., no iPhone), they are far behind the curve on network technology, and both are shedding customers.

The combined company, which will be called T-Mobile, will have 42.5 million subscribers -- 33.2 million from T-Mobile and 9.3 million from MetroPCS.
  
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Industry analysts largely cheered the deal, but noted that it will not be a seamless transition. The deal is complicated by T-Mobile's subsidiary status and the two sides' incompatible wireless technologies. Shares of MetroPCS (PCS, Fortune 500) dropped 8% in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Deutsche Telekom finished the day essentially flat in trading in Germany.

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