There has been speculation in the mobile world about the possible takeover of the UK arm of T-Mobile for a little while. Vodafone were thought to be bidding, as were 02.

However T-Mobile UK look set to merge with Orange in a deal set to create a mobile phone goliath with 37% of the UK market (over 28 million customers), overtaking 02 as the largest network.

The deal could be signed by November and will mean the companies make large ongoing savings through sharing network resources and streamlining their admin and customer service operations.

These savings could well result in lower tariffs for their customers in the future however for the time being all accounts will run as normal as both brands will be retained, at least for the time being.

It is unknown what will happen to Virgin Mobile, which runs on T-Mobile's network, or 3, which has recently signed up to do the same. These issues could be affected by possible intervention by the competition authorities who are likely to want to scrutinise the deal and the effect it will have on the UK mobile phone market.

Business mobile phone users with both networks should be unaffected in the short term but, as we always recommend, when their contracts are due for renewal should look around for the best deals by contacting us.