Days after Sprint was revealed to be considering a purchase of T-Mobile US, satellite provider Dish Network is reportedly thinking about making a bid of its own.

A potential Sprint/T-Mobile merger would leave the US with just three major cellular carriers and would be heavily scrutinized by the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. A Dish purchase of T-Mobile would maintain the status quo of four major nationwide carriers and would perhaps be more palatable to antitrust authorities.

Dish's potential bid was reported by Reuters last night, citing "people close to the matter."

"Dish Network Corp, which lost out to Japanese telecoms giant Softbank in its attempt to buy Sprint Corp several months ago, has since been sizing up T-Mobile US Inc. as a takeover candidate and has talked to majority owner Deutsche Telekom AG about a potential deal, the three sources said," Reuters wrote. "Sprint is also mulling a takeover of T-Mobile and could make a bid in the first half of 2014, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal last week. While Dish has not yet decided whether to move forward with a bid, the company does not intend to sit on the sidelines if Sprint does bid for T-Mobile, two of the people said."

Dish has also attempted to purchase LightSquared, which has licenses to wireless frequencies but filed for bankruptcy after its plan to build a cellular network failed because of interference with GPS devices.

Reuters noted that "Dish would have less synergies with T-Mobile than Sprint, because it owns wireless spectrum but does not have a network or infrastructure."