On Monday, T-Mobile USA revealed that it has struck a deal with Verizon Wireless under which it will "purchase and exchange of certain Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in 218 markets across the US."

According to the terms of the deal, T-Mobile will gain spectrum which covers 60 million people, in exchange for cash as well as spectrum - covering nearly 22 million people - which it will hand over to Verizon Wireless.

Though the financial terms of the deal, in which T-Mobile and Verizon will swap and purchase airwaves, have not been officially disclosed, analysts opine that the value of T-Mobile's spectrum purchase deal is nearly $260 million.

With the spectrum which T-Mobile will gain from Verizon covering 60 million people, the T-Mobile/Verizon deal - which is subject to government approval of Verizon's $3.6 billion airwaves acquisition from a consortium of cable companies - will improve as well as augment T-Mobile's present 4G offerings; and will also help the company in the direction of its 4G LTE rollout in 2013.

T-Mobile's deal with Verizon underscores that while the carrier was initially critical of Verizon's attempts to purchase $3.6 billion worth of wireless airwaves from cable bigwigs - Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and Bright House, it now supports that transaction.

Noting that the agreement with Verizon will help T-Mobile offer more substantial competition to other wireless carriers, Kathleen Ham - a regulatory executive with T-Mobile - said: "We reached an agreement that resolves our concerns that we think is pro-competitive."