Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has said that the company is considering a technology switch to LTE according to Financial Times.

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has said that the company is considering a technology switch to LTE according to Financial Times. This may lead to its merger with T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom’s US unit.

Deutsche Telekom reportedly looked at a merger with Sprint in 2008. But merger did not happen partly because Sprint and T-Mobile USA use different 3G wireless technologies.

Now with Sprint declaring LTE path, merger option has again opened. T-Mobile, which does not have required spectrum to migrate to 4G LTE standards, may now willing to join hands.

According to Dan Hesse, sprint has enough spectrum resources to add LTE on top of the WiMAX network, if company chooses to do that. “The beauty of having a lot of spectrum is we have a lot of flexibility,” he added.

Sprint is currently seeking bids from telecoms equipment makers for network infrastructure that could provide mobile services using both WiMAX and LTE technologies. But back in May, Sprint issued an RFP for its next-generation technology plans and said LTE is one option. Huawei, Motorola and Samsung are potential suppliers.