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Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu threw his hat in the ring on Thursday with an answer to one of the mobile industry’s favorite questions of the season: Which US carrier will be next to get their hands on Apple’s popular iPhone?

According to Wu, the answer is likely  T-Mobile USA, a distant fourth in the cutthroat US mobile service market.
This would be a surprise, as most of the rumors have surrounded Verizon Wireless, a Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc venture, because that company is the market leader and has made no secret of its desire to get the Apple phone on its shelves.

But Wu says T-Mobile USA may be the best candidate to get the phone first because it uses the same network technology as AT&T Inc, currently the exclusive US iPhone provider. While Verizon Wireless has more customers than T-Mobile USA, its network runs on a technology that Apple currently does not support. Interestingly enough, Wu said, the newest version of iPhone would also work on 2100 Mhz frequency of wireless spectrum, which T-Mobile USA uses.

“While the general consensus is around Verizon (which we believe will happen evenutally) we continue to believe that T-Mobile USA is the most likely candidate given its use  of similar cellular technology (to) AT&T.”

Another factor in T-Mobile USA’s favor is that it needs the iPhone badly enough that it may be most ready to agree to any kind of demands Apple cares to put on the table. Verizon Wireless keeps adding customers.

Verizon’s Chief Executive on Tuesday tackled subjects ranging from US healthcare reform,  iPhone, China, his lack of interest in a merger with Vodafone and his feelings about former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Here’s a sample of comments he made at an event held by the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday.

On the likelihood of a Vodafone/Verizon merger:
“Absent new information a merger doesnt seem to have a lot of appeal.”

 So much for emerging-market solidarity.

A proposed $24 billion deal between Bharti of India and MTN of South Africa has fallen apart, not for the usual issues of price or control, but national ego.

The apparent sticking point was that South Africa was eager to retain MTN's national character and had approached Indian authorities to consider a dual-listed entity, a structure that Indian laws currently do not allow.

The opportunity for a landmark deal in southern economic cooperation, one that would have created the third-largest wireless operator in the world, looks lost. After several failed attempts, it is the credibility of their respective governments, not the companies themselves, that is left in doubt.

-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own -- 

By Eric Auchard 

LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Deja vu, all over and over again. The news is that T-Mobile UK is for sale. Still. 

The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, says Deutsche Telekom is in "preliminary stage" talks with Vodafone, France Telecom, and Telefonica to sell T-Mobile UK. 

The logic of such a deal seems to be compelling. DT needs to sell out because T-Mobile lacks the scale to gain an edge over its multiple competitors. 

In a wide-ranging interview with Charlie Rose earlier this week, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg danced around questions about cellphones but was more forthcoming about the U.S. telecom giant’s long-term expansion ambitions.

Asked to confirm a report that Verizon will sell an Android-based phone from Motorola this year Seidenberg said, “It might be true what you said. I can’t quite disclose…”

And as for any plans to sell iPhone, the executive said that would be Apple’s decision.

The “Business Call to Action,” hosted by the British prime minister, drew some 80 CEOs of the world’s biggest companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Vodafone as well as top politicians to discuss how big business can stamp out global poverty.

The lure? Big profits. Ghana’s President John Kufuor said it will be easier for U.S. and European businesses to make their next million in Africa rather than anywhere else. The credit crunch has made a few more believe this might be true.

“Three billion of the world’s 6 billion people have mobile phones,” Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said. “And three-quarters of the new customers are in the developing world. This is a huge opportunity.”