Interest in T-Mobile hots up

2nd Jul 2009 13:44

Spanish telecom giant Telefonica is looking to preserve the dominant position of its O2 brand in the UK mobile phone market by sizing up T-Mobile UK, the network owned by Deutsche Telekom.Rumours have been rife in the market this week that UK mobile phone giant Vodafone is interested in acquiring T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom, a move which would catapult it to number one position in the UK market with a 40% share of the market, against O2's 27%.Deutsche Telekom is believed to be contemplating exiting the UK market, which has five major operators and is thus one of the most competitive mobile phone markets in the world. In May the German telecom giant took a €1.8bn hit when it wrote down the value of its investment in T-Mobile UK, a move which tipped it into the red in the first quarter.