T-Mobile and Orange will merge
The EU has granted approval for the merger of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, however, the approval was conditional on an amendment to the network sharing agreement between T-Mobile and Three, as the EU was concerned that the merger could possibly threaten the viability of Three, which is the smallest mobile network operator in the UK.
They also had to agree that the combined network would give up 25 per cent of its mobile spectrum within the 1800MHz band. Otherwise, the 60MHz contiguous spectrum held would be significantly larger than any of the other networks which means it would have the ability to run LTE, the next generation of mobile broadband services, as the best possible speeds within the current spectrum.
In light of these concessions, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have withdrawn their request to review the case, giving a green light for the merger to go ahead. This will create the UK’s largest mobile network with a market share of around 37%.