The collapse of the proposed $39 billion AT&T/T-Mobile merger leaves T-Mobile, which is the fourth-ranking US carrier and was the weaker partner in the deal, with few good options to flourish in the country’s cut-throat wireless market.

With AT&T having Monday announced its plans to abandon the proposed merger, T-Mobile too dumbstruck to explain what strategy it intends following now. Stating that T-Mobile was “back at the starting point,” Andreas Fuchs - a spokesman for T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telekom – said that there currently is “no Plan B” being mulled by the company.

While most of the analysts are also apparently clueless when it comes to projecting a future course of action for T-Mobile – which they claim has “lost a lot of time” in chasing the merger dream -, Fuchs has also refrained on commenting as to whether the carrier would try to work out an alliance with a new partner in the US.

In the opinion of some analysts, it appears quite likely that T-Mobile may decide to pursue a business association with some other wireless carrier, or perhaps even the satellite TV operator Dish, which seemingly has shown interest in the deal in case the AT&T/T-Mobile merger fell through.

Noting that other than another merger, there are not many other attractive alternatives for the lagging T-Mobile to mull over, Craig Moffett - a research analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company – said that the collapse of the proposed merger will force AT&T and T-Mobile “to go back and lick their respective wounds and consider their options.”