Deutsche Telekom is considering the future of its US mobile unit, T-Mobile USA, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), with options including an IPO, a partial spinoff of the business, or a merger with a US rival. The WSJ claims that T-Mobile USA’s parent has recently held discussions with a number of banks such as Deutsche Bank AG about underwriting an IPO for the unit. The article claims the company could also spinoff some of the business, which would carve it into a separate entity with its own balance sheet, or merge it with a rival, although the report says this is a less likely option. Representatives of Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA have not commented, although shares in Deutsche Telekom rose 1.6 percent this morning following the report.

This news is the latest in a recent bout of speculation concerning the future of T-Mobile USA. The operator has only a 12 percent market share, well behind rivals Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Nextel.  It has also been the subject of concern surrounding the inferiority of its network compared to its competitors. Last September T-Mobile USA was reported to be in talks with Clearwire and MetroPCS regarding accessing extra network capacity to beef up its high-speed network.  Earlier that month Deutsche Telekom had been linked to an acquisition of number three operator, Sprint. At the time a Financial Times report stated that Deutsche Telekom’s top two shareholders – the German government and private equity group Blackstone – had told its management that it has until the middle of 2010 to turn round the German telecoms group’s ailing US mobile phone business. Going back further, T-Mobile USA was also once the subject of a reported potential deal with SK Telecom.