A Merrill Lynch analyst yesterday floated a rumor that T-Mobile USA owner Deutsche Telekom may consider buying the beleaguered Sprint "to block a price war in the mobile phone industry," according to The Kansas City Star's David Hayes.

There are, of course, a number of problems with that idea, not the least of which is technical. "The carrier would have to manage not two, but three different network standards - Sprint's 3G CDMA network, the legacy Nextel iDEN system, and its own GSM/EDGE network," notes InformationWeek's Stephen Wellman. "And T-Mobile would have to do something with Sprint's WiMax operation, Xohm."

Still, as TG Daily's Wolfgang Gruener points out, there would be some key benefits. "The acquisition would not only take T-Mobile deeper into the U.S phone business, but would also create a strong foothold in the upcoming WiMax world: Sprint Nextel and its Xohm subsidiary are leading this field in the U.S.," he writes.

Plus, it's cheap. "The scenario is particularly possible because of DT's foreign ownership; a weak dollar means Sprint can be had for far less now that it would in better economic conditions, and Sprint's stock is down nearly 50 percent since the beginning of the year," notes Yahoo! Tech's Christopher Null. And Null suggests a great name for the new company: T-Mobisprex...

More here from Bloomberg ... more here from IntoMobile ... more here from Telephony Online ... more here from SlashGear ... more here from ZDNet ... more here from CrunchGear ... more here from WebProNews ... more here from Electronista ... more here from GigaOM ... more here from The Boy Genius Report ... and more here from Out of the Box.