The speculation is over as two of the UK’s mobile phone network operators have announced their intention to merge.

If the application from T-Mobile and Orange is approved, it would make the combined company the largest operator in the UK, with a 37% market share, propelling it past O2.

The deal is due to be completed by November, with the two companies unsurprisingly speaking of the “substantial benefits to UK customers” the merger would bring.

The proposal has to get past competition regulators first.

Changes would be fairly slow, with the brands remaining separate for a year-and-a-half after the deal was completed. Would Orange become a little pink after that? We’ll have to wait and see.

The UK’s mobile landscape would then be made up of the big three — T-Mobile/Orange, O2 and Vodafone — controlling some 90% of the UK market.

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