[andy]

For some months, there have been rumours and speculation about the future of T-mobile UK, which seemed to be a bit in the doldrums on a smaller market share. Links with any of the other UK networks were suggested as possible.

Last night, there were stronger rumours growing that an announcement was to be made today, and this has indeed happened, with Google searches showing more news reports appearing all the time

So far, or on what I've read anyway, the final details aren't clear, apart from some of the financial aspects like debt and shares, and indeed perhaps they are still open to change as the process is described as exclusive talks.

It's said the networks will run in parallel for about 18 months, which will give time for decisions to be made about eventual branding.

This would still have to clear with competition regulators and so on, so it can't yet be seen as a done deal, though perhaps it will be less obstructed than a tie-up with O2 or Vodafone would have been