If T-Mobile wanted to negotiate an arrangement similar to 'T-Orange' in the United States, the most likely partner would be Sprint. The problem is that the deal offers little of value to Sprint. The combined subscriber base would put the alliance around 82 million, catapulting them ahead of AT&T, but barely and still #2 behind Verizon.

Sprint may be a little gun shy about such mergers as well. The did not go nearly as smoothly as Sprint had hoped or planned. On the one hand, the Nextel battle scars Sprint has acquired in the trial-by-fire Nextel experience might uniquely qualify them to enter into an arrangement with T-Mobile.

T-Mobile is far behind competitors in terms of network technology though. While Sprint is working diligently to establish itself as a leader in the emerging 4G market, T-Mobile is just catching the 3G wave. The growing pains of trying to fit a round peg in a square hole and force their technologies to play nicely together is probably not worth any potential benefits to be gained.

That leaves the big boys- Verizon and AT&T. Either of them could swallow up T-Mobile. For AT&T, such a purchase would make it the largest provider. For Verizon, it would put them far ahead of the second place competitor. Aside from those bragging rights though neither has much to gain.

Verizon and AT&T are both achieving success just fine. Competing head to head with the quality and reach of their respective networks and providing original features lets the two whittle away at companies like T-Mobile. Basically, they can win the customers through attrition without spending the money to buy T-Mobile or dealing with the headaches to integrate it.