Sprint’s future is unwritten. And while that is true for any business or person for that matter — of the big nationwide network operators in the United States, Sprint stands alone as an entity at a crossroads. Will it or won’t it merge with T-Mobile US is still very much an open-ended question.

The operator is in a holding pattern as it awaits the outcome of the proposed $26.5 billion deal with T-Mobile US, but in the meantime the company insists that it is staying the course and remains positive that the last 18 months will have been worth all of the drama.

“As we wrap up the exhaustive and detailed process with [the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commision], we remain very confident that the lawsuit brought by the state attorneys general will be resolved in our favor and that the merger will close,” a Sprint spokesperson told SDxCentral.

“In the meantime, we will continue to optimize performance and add capabilities and enhancements to give our customers a better experience in our nine 5G markets,” the spokesperson explained. “Regarding additional [5G] markets, this is exactly why we are advocating for a merger with T-Mobile.”

Sprint maintains that only a combination with T-Mobile US will create the spectrum assets, scale, and financial wherewithal to make it and the nation a worldwide leader in 5G. “The combined company will deliver superior coverage, capacity, and consistency of experience at better prices than either company would be able to offer as a standalone,” the spokesperson said.

Sprint’s financial outlook and guidance is also essentially on hold because of the challenges it faces in delivering a strategy with or without T-Mobile. It’s hard to plan when you don’t know what you’re planning for.

“Given we are in the late stages of the merger process, we have not even provided full-year guidance for fiscal 2019. We have given some color on near-term trends, including our expectation that network cash capex should continue at current spending levels,” the spokesperson said.

Sprint has been reticent to even consider the possibility that the merger won’t be consummated. Executives have been quiet on this question for months, but the company pointed to a letter CEO Michel Combes delivered to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in April to reiterate its position.

“Simply put, we lack the spectrum assets, scale, and financial resources needed to compete aggressively against the larger wireless companies. Though we continue to improve the Sprint network, consumers still rank us last among the nationwide carriers,” he wrote. “We cannot build a consistently reliable nationwide 5G network on our own.”

Sprint also expanded on its dire outlook in a more lengthy filing with the FCC wherein its lawyers pleaded with regulators to approve the merger or risk watching Sprint wade into even more choppy waters.

“Without the merger Sprint will continue to struggle,” Combes wrote in his letter to Starks. He also highlighted the ongoing impact to its workforce as conditions continue to worsen for the operator. “Sprint went from more than 43,000 employees in 2010 to approximately 28,000 employees today,” he explained.

“Despite this painful cost cutting, we’re still not a profitable company. … Sprint has lost $25 billion over the past decade,” Combes wrote. “Without the merger, the trajectory for Sprint will worsen and Sprint’s prospects will be limited. Sprint will be forced to further reduce its operating expenses, which means more job reductions … and our future as a standalone company will be in jeopardy.”