Merge: iPhone 5 looms as Sprint claims AT&T+T-Mobile=bad, Verizon stews

Even as the iPhone 5 appears it may arrive in the fall after all, Sprint is calling out AT&T for its attempted takeover of T-Mobile. And regardless of ones position on the appropriateness of said merger, Sprint’s attempt to turn public (and perhaps regulatory) tide against the idea means that the carrier doesn’t like the idea of two of its three rivals joining forces one bit. And that’s not a surprise, as an AT&T-T-Mobile merger would instantly make Sprint the nation’s smallest major carrier, and – presumably – the only one not on board for the iPhone 5. Meanwhile Verizon has yet to say a word about the merger as it weighs its options.

If talk of an impending white iPhone 4 is accurate, we won’t see the iPhone 5 this June after all. And regardless of the reason for that development, it would actually give the involved parties more time to figure out how to work together. Sprint likely wants, and perhaps at this point needs, the iPhone 5 in order to remain competitive. But Sprint has doubled down so thoroughly on marrying itself to its version of 4G that it would be difficult for the carrier to pick up the iPhone 5 if it’s not a 4G device (in contrast, while Verizon has begun publicly marrying itself to 4G LTE, it’s largely for show thus far as Verizon’s 4G network still barely exists anywhere). AT&T is so far behind on 4G that it won’t much care whether the iPhone 5 is 4G or not, and while T-Mobile has also married itself to a flavor of 4G, it’ll end up taking the iPhone 5 if new parent company AT&T arranges for it. So not only is Sprint set to be the only U.S. carrier without an iPhone deal, it might be the only carrier which can’t save face with or without the iPhone 5.

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Honestly whoever waited to get the iPhone white should seriously hold off until the iPhone 5