Just as was rumored earlier today, Deutsche Telekom has announced that it has improved its bid for MetroPCS. The new offer reduces the amount of the loan that it would be owed by $3.8 billion, leaving it at a total of $11.2 billion, and also includes a lower interest rate on the debt. Additionally, Deutsche Telekom's new bid extends the lockup period in which DT would be prohibited from publicly shares in the combined T-Mobile-MetroPCS entity to 18 months. Other terms of the deal are staying the same, meaning that MetroPCS will receive $1.5 billion in cash and a 26 percent stake in the combined T-Metro. Deutsche Telekom says that its latest bid for MetroPCS is its "best and final offer."

The proposed merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS was first announced back in October 2012, and since then, the deal has cleared every regulatory hurdle that's stood in its path. Now the completion of the transaction is dependent on a MetroPCS shareholder vote, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 12. Both MetroPCS and T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom have said that they're confident that the merger will go through, but several major entities have come out in opposition of the deal, including MetroPCS's largest shareholder.

This new offer from Deutsche Telekom suggests that the company may have started to sweat a bit, leading to a reduction in the debt that T-Mobile-MetroPCS would incur as well as a lowered interest rate, which were two issues that the merger's opposition have been concerned about. Whether or not this new deal will be enough to sway the deal's opponents approval remains to be seen, but it certainly can't hurt. Now we just have to wait for all of the MetroPCS stockholder votes to be tallied to see if T-Mobile and MetroPCS will indeed be joined together as one.

UPDATE: MetroPCS announced tonight that it has rescheduled its shareholder vote once again. After originally getting scheduled for March 28 and then moved to April 12, MetroPCS has now moved its meeting to April 24.

Via AllThingsD, Bloomberg, @DT_IR, MetroPCS