The on-again, off-again love affair between wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint has been prolonged for years now. Representatives of the nation’s third and fourth-largest telecommunications giants, in John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile (NASDAQ:$TMUS), and Sprint’s (NASDAQ:$S) largest stakeholder, Masayoshi Son, have been reported to be in talks for some time now. One possible speculation of the topic is a “stock-for-stock merger”— a scenario that would render T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom to the forefront of the deal, as it emerges as the majority owner of the combined entity.

Despite the uncertainty of the rumors, investors wasted no time sending shares of both telecom giants soaring. TMUS stock jumped 5.5%m while Sprint jumped 10%.

Recently, T-Mobile has been focusing on customer acquisition, increasing cash flows, profit margins, and improving its network. Meanwhile, Sprint, thanks to its own subscriber growth, has become cash flow positive in a much shorter turnaround time than predicted.

However, truly vying for subscribers away from major rivals Verizon (NASDAQ:$VZ) and AT&T (NASDAQ:$T) will be a lot harder in the upcoming years. Specifically, Verizon and AT&T’s large 5G and LTE network, along with unlimited data plans, will be a huge attraction to customers. What’s more, the wireless market is only seeing increased saturation, such as Verizon picking up Yahoo, while AT & T is currently in talks with Time Warner (NASDAQ:$TW).

As of the most recent quarter, T-Mobile saw around $31 billion in total debt and a mere $181 million in cash. Sprint saw $39.5 billion in debt and $6.83 billion in cash. In other words? The two companies need each other.

Featured Image: depositphotos/Joeppoulssen