T-Mobile and Orange in UK merger
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8243226.stm
"T-Mobile is currently the fourth-largest mobile operator in the UK, with a 15% share of the market. O2 has a 27% share, followed by Vodafone (25%) and Orange (22%). "
"If completed, a deal between Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Orange owner France Telecom would see a firm with sales of 9.4bn euros (£8.2bn; $13.5bn).
It would be the UK's largest provider, overtaking Telefonica's O2, with about 37% of the mobile market"
i dont think the Competition Commission, or even the EU, would allow O2 or Vodafone to take over T-Mobile, as they already have 25%+ of the market
from those figures, 3 & Virgin must have 11% between them
Orange & T-Mobile use the same GSM frequencies, so technically it will be easy to merge them.
i can see them having to do what Morrisons did when they bought Safeway:
cell tower sites they dont want would have to be sold, & not just turned off
Virgin, as an MVNO, would have to be given 100% access to the larger network from day 1
the 3Mobile sharing agreement will probably have to be ended
they will lose customers, & will probably have to not chase customers until their market share is ~30%
as for branding, i think 'Orange' is more likely to be kept, especially as they offer broadband under that name, & its easier to expand that generic name into other services.