Here’s some more evidence that wireless carrier MetroPCS was a hot commodity this summer. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Dallas-based carrier was approached by Dish Network about a $4 billion deal in August roughly two months before T-Mobile USA announced its offer.

The deal — disclosed in a SEC filing in which an unidentified suitor is listed as “Company C” — could have catapulted satellite TV provider Dish into the wireless arena. The Journal reports that Company C was indeed Dish, and reports that another unidentified company in the SEC filing, Company G, was Sprint.

The filing notes:

On August 10, 2012, the MetroPCS directors conducted a telephone conference to discuss the proposal from Company C. JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and Evercore discussed the Company C proposal and how it compared negatively to the proposed transaction with Deutsche Telekom on the basis of various financial metrics.

In addition, the directors noted that the approximately $1.2 billion of aggregate cash consideration offered by Company C was less than half of our projected year-end 2012 cash balance. Pursuant to the directors’ instructions, later that day we responded to Company C in writing, stating that the proposal was timely because MetroPCS was currently evaluating other strategic options, but that the Company C proposal was not adequate, both in terms of absolute value as well as the cash consideration per share, particularly in light of MetroPCS’ projected year-end cash balance, that we were open to Company C submitting an improved proposal, and that we were prepared to move quickly if an improved proposal that was attractive to the MetroPCS board was made.

Previously on GeekWire: T-Mobile exec: One major carrier will go down

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