T-Mobile and Orange Merger Approved
The proposed merger of T-Mobile and Orange has been given the all clear after the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) withdrew its request for time to investigate the deal. The merger means that together they will become the largest mobile services provider in the UK.
The OFT wanted to investigate on the basis that the merged entity would own an unfair proportion of radio spectrum, and that once it had merged with Orange T-Mobile would have little incentive to maintain its network sharing agreement with 3UK. Now the companies involved have undertaken to address those issues, prompting the OFT to drop the investigation request and so the EU has approved the merger plans.
Specifically, T-Orange will be handing over 30MHz of the 120MHz the combined company holds at 1800MHz, and has signed a deal with 3UK which binds the new entity into maintaining the shared network.
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