We ran the news yesterday that both Vodafone and O2 were in talks to aquire the T-Mobile network for somwhere around the £3.5bn, well it seems as though those talks have fizzled out as it seems the magenta-coloured network will be merging with the orange-coloured network.

It would be a 50-50 venture between T-Mob and Orange, resulting in a company that will gather €9.4bn (EUR) in revenue and will become the largest UK network by subscriber numbers.

According to Bloomberg, the merger will save around €4bn in expenses, and should help cement subscribers network coverage, whilst also being able to compete more with O2 on price.

T-Mobile has been focusing on flagship phones like the G1, G2 and Nokia 5800 in the last year, whilst Orange has been working to attract users at the lower end of the spectrum with cheaper contracts and lower end handsets.

We're not sure what name or branding the combined entity will take, what will happen to stores in similar locations or whose handset roster will win out, but we should know in due time.

[Bloomberg]