US carrier Sprint is mulling a takeover if rival provider T-Mobile USA, according to sources cited by a Wall Street Journal report. If successful, this deal would leave the country with only three major telecoms, wrote Apple Insider.

The sources also said Sprint is in the early stages of going through regulatory hurdles to the planned takeover in 2014. Depending on the size of the stake Sprint attempts to take, the transaction could be worth $20 billion, the report said.

Based on this year's nine-month revenue until September, a Sprint/T-Mobile merger could spawn a strong competitor to Verizon and AT&T. Sprint and T-Mobile have combined revenues of $35.8 billion within the said period. AT&T has roughly $45 billion and Verizon has $51 billion, the report detailed.

Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's chief executive, is reportedly behind the T-Mobile takeover. In July, Japan's SoftBank closed out a deal for majority stake in Sprint. Son is known as an aggressive tycoon and has launched his communications empire through a series of takeovers and acquisitions, the report stated.

Overall, a Sprint-T-Mobile consolidation would merge 53 million postpaid subscribers, compared to 72 million from AT&T and 95 million from Verizon, Apple Insider reported.