While rumours have been circulating for months regarding US network Sprint buying a controlling interest in T-Mobile US, French network Iliad has made a surprise offer for the company.

Iliad has offered $15bn (£8.9bn) in cash for 56.6 per cent of T-Mobile US, confirming the deal with a press release that noted that “T-Mobile US has successfully established a disruptive position, which in many ways, is similar to the one Iliad has built in France.”

Iliad has built a name for itself in France by offering heavily discounted mobile plan prices, which have forced larger networks to follow suit to remain competitive. T-Mobile has been adopting a similar strategy in the US, so a deal between the two could well make sense. Both companies are the fourth-largest mobile providers in their native countries.

For several months, a deal between T-Mobile and current third-largest US provider Sprint has been brewing, with Sprint hoping that a deal between the two would allow it to challenge Verizon and AT&T for dominance of the US market. While T-Mobile has not publicly indicated any interest in being bought, it is thought that a deal with Sprint was close to being agreed. Iliads offer may well throw a spanner in that deal.