EC conditionally approves Orange UK/T-Mobile UK merger

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The recent speculations regarding the grant of conditional approval for the merger between the UK subsidiaries of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom has been confirmed by the European Commission (EC).

Under the conditions for the deal, Orange UK and T-Mobile UK are required to enter into a joint network sharing agreement with Hutchison 3G UK in order to ‘ensure there remains sufficient competitors in the market’.

A quarter of combined spectrum in the 1800MHz band is also required to be sold by the new enlarged company.

However, consumer rights groups have opposed the approval citing it to be too quick and without the involvement of the UK regulator.