T-Mobile reportedly pursuing tower sale for up to $3 billion

T-Mobile is apparently looking to do whatever it can in order to raise enough money to continue on as an independent entity. In addition to massive job cuts, Bloomberg reports that the company intends to sell a large number of cell towers, as many as $3 billion worth, as quickly as possible. The move will bring in more cash on top of the $4 billion in cash and spectrum it received in the wake of AT&T's failed takeover. T-Mobile told All Things D that it was evaluating a "tower sale as part of its self-funding strategy," but didn't confirm any details.

The overall strategy is apparently to make T-Mobile "self-funded," which is to say able to stand on its own two feet independent of parent company Deutsche Telekom. The strategy of selling towers, however, is a sign that the company may be in more dire straits than it appears. Sprint sold almost all of its own towers to TowerCo in 2008 for $680 million, which gave it an infusion of cash but didn't achieve the stated goal of focusing on its " core business of providing communication services to consumers." T-Mobile faces as many problems as Sprint does (though they're different problems) when it comes to building out a 4G LTE network. While the tower sale would likely help with short-terms issues, it's a sign that its long-term prospects are far from resolved.

• SourceBloomberg All Things D
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