Finally, the ongoing saga of what or who would purchase T-Mobile UK has ended with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom Orange agreeing to merge their UK mobile businesses.

T-Mobile’s decision to go with Orange seems initially to be motivated by money, with rival bidders Vodafone and O2 both bidding around £3.5 billion. This was according to industry sources far too low for Deutsche Telekom, who had hoped for bids of over £4 billion.

So what difference benefits does a merger between these two mobile giants mean for the consumer? Initially I don’t know but as T-Mobile and Orange have agreed to the venture being split 50:50 this will create a clear market leader in the UK with a combined market share of 37% with over 28 million customers. Making it the clear UK mobile market leader with O2 at 27% and Vodafone 25% respectively. 

I personally hope this will be a catalyst for change in the UK mobile market, especially for prepaid customers who want to see more handsets made available.