Vodafone to buy T-Mobile?

Vodafone has 25% of the UK market, T-Mobile only has 15% but a combined company would have 40% of the market which is way ahead of O2 the current leader with 27%.

This would still require regulatory approval and the other networks would no doubt cry foul play, though Vodafone would be unlikely be considered a monopoly unless their market share rose considerably.

Though this could be seen as a bad thing for the market as competition would be reduced, it would give Vodafone economies of scale as they could improve coverage by merging physical networks and removing duplicate coverage while increasing coverage in areas that are poorly covered now. They could also increase capacity within the network allowing for high speed data services.

T-Mobile (Germany) may not wish to part with the UK arm at the moment as the valuation will be low in the current market conditions.