Mobile phone operators and retailers T-Mobile and 3 deny they were in talks to merge their UK operations as they formed a joint venture to combine their 3G mobile access networks.
Rene Obermann, chief executive of T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telekom, had previously signalled a desire for consolidation in Europe's fiercely competitive mobile markets.
However, T-Mobile UK chief executive Jim Hyde said that pooling networks with 3 was a way of consolidating, but did not have “anything to do” with a fully fledged merger.
3 UK chief executive Kevin Russell told the Telegraph: “I don’t see mergers happening between big telecoms players… the sexy stuff is equity consolidation but it is unrealistic in this marketplace.”
T-Mobile and 3, the UK's fourth and fifth biggest operators, with about 250 UK stores each, plan to share their 3G networks to enable them to cut the costs of rolling out infrastructure across the uncovered parts of the country.
Hutchison Whampoa-owned 3 covers about 90 per cent of the UK population with its network, while T-Mobile covers about 84 per cent.
As the smallest UK player, 3 has long been expected to be the subject of a takeover as part of consolidation in the mobile market.
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