New York — T-Mobile US and Sprint have agreed to a $26bn all-stock deal and believe they might win over sceptical regulators because the merger will create thousands of jobs and help the US beat China to creating the next generation mobile network, the company said on Sunday. The agreement caps four years of on-and-off talks between the third- and fourth-largest US wireless carriers, setting the stage for the creation of a company with 127-million customers that will be a more formidable competitor to the number one and number two wireless players, Verizon Communications and AT&T. US regulators, which have challenged in court AT&T’s $85bn deal to buy US media company Time Warner, are expected to grill Sprint and T-Mobile on how they will price their combined wireless offerings. Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s first round of merger talks ended unsuccessfully in 2014 after then US president Barack Obama’s administration expressed antitrust concerns. The new deal will create the highest capaci...

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