Sprint Chairman Seeks to Woo US Regulators Over T-Mobile Bid:

Further speculation that Sprint will launch a takeover bid for T-Mobile USA has been heightened by reports that Sprint's Chairman Masayoshi Son is due to have a meeting with the telecoms regulator to overcome their concerns.

Although the meeting is not said to be specific to the T-Mobile deal, it is understood to be on the agenda.

US regulators are said to be concerned about both the potential consolidation in the market as well as the fact that Sprint did not have a happy time of its previous large merger, with Nextel, which was later largely written off.

Sprint has however swapped out most of its senior management. Sprint's Chairman, Masayoshi Son is also the CEO of Softbank, the ambitious Japanese company that recently took control of Sprint.

The US Justice Department is also understood to be skeptical, and is touting its decision to block AT&'s attempt to buy T-Mobile in 2011 as an example of how increased competition is driving down consumer prices.

Sprint Looking to Revive the Nextel Brandname:

USA based Sprint may be about to resurrect its dormant Nextel brandname as part of a wider revamping of its marketing efforts this year.

The company has a cluster of different brandnames it uses to sell services, and is said to be preparing a major review that would see them slashed to a more manageable portfolio.

Citing an unnamed source, TechCruch reported that the company will relaunch the Nextel brand for its corporate services. The Clearwire services would first adopt the Nextel brand, which would then absorb Sprint's corporate customers.

Critically, the changes would simply reuse the brandname. There are no plans to revive the older iDEN network. 

The existing low-cost brands, Virgin Mobile and Boost are expected to be scrapped and replaced with a new brand - "Sprint Freedom".

Assurance Wireless, the free mobile phone service provided by Virgin Mobile under the Universal Service Fund, will not be affected.

The company has been widely reported to be preparing a takeover bid for T-Mobile USA, and it is likely that if successful, then Sprint would seek to migrate the customers to its new brandname portfolio.