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EU approves Orange and T-Mobile merger
02 March 2010
The merger of the UK business of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom will go ahead after regulatory approval
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Orange
T-Mobile
UK
France Telecom
Deutsche Telekom
EU
Office of Fair Trading
The European Commission has approved the planned merger of the UK businesses of France Telecom’s Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile. The joint venture, which will create the UK’s largest mobile operator by market share, is conditional upon an amendment to ensure that Hutchison’s 3 will have continued access to Deutsche Telekom’s network in the UK.
The deal also requires the divestiture of a quarter of the merging parties’ combined spectrum in the 1,800 megahertz band.
The two brands will run separately for one and a half years after the deal is completed.
The deal will bring down the number of UK mobile network operators from five to four, with the merged Orange/T-Mobile entity outdoing Telefónica’s O2 UK subsidiary and Vodafone’s UK business.
The merger comes after the UK’s Office of Fair Trading withdrew its request to investigate the deal. The OFT wanted to investigate on the basis that the merged entity would own an unfair proportion of radio spectrum. GTB