By acquiring Sprint Nextel, it could roughly triple its client base in the U.S. and surpass leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless

Maybe at first. But when customers start leaving because you either dumped Sprint's entire high speed CDMA network or tried to run both networks under one roof, then they will be right where they are now, last. TMO to me is cheap talk for the kiddies, not serious data for mission critical applications. I could defiantly see Sprint's long time data customers leaving for ATT or VZW if TMO stepped into the picture.