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Recent reports suggest that Vodafone Group PLC is hoping to buy the business, a move which would give Vodafone the largest market share of the UK. Currently, Vodafone trails market leader Telefonica’s O2 at 25% to 27% market share.



Any such deal would come under the scrutiny of the UK’s Office of Fair Trading and the communication regulator Ofcom, to determine whether a merger of major mobile companies drive a price increase. There are five major players in the UK, including France Telecom’s Orange and Hutchison Whampoa’s 3.



Neither Deutsche Telecom nor Vodafone has commented on the suggestion that a merger is in the works. France Telecom has expressed it has no intention to purchase T-Mobile UK and Deutsche is said to have ruled out merging with Hutchison. Telefonica said it would not comment on speculation, though some commentators have noted that the company is interested, to avoid losing its position at the top of the market.



T-Mobile UK is valued at around GBP 3.3 billion, despite recent poor results. It has been suggested that an “asset swap” may be considered, for example, exchanging Vodafone’s Turkish business for Deutsche’s UK business. The acquisition of the operations in Turkey would complement Deutsche’s recent acquisition of the incumbent OTE in Greece.