Mobile Phones – Orange & T-Mobile Merger Given Official GoAhead by EU Commission
The European Commission has granted a conditional go-ahead, with a networking sharing agreement with 3 and a reduction in its share of the combined 1800MHz band the main terms of the agreement.
Interestingly the EU Commission could not find any just cause to reject the merger, with no direct concerns in relation to the mobile phones (http://www.foneshop.com) market and provisions for all mobile telecommunications products.
The agreement from the European Commission has seen the Office of Fair Trading withdraw its request to appeal, after the Commission smoothed over fears from the OFT that the approaching merger would make the UK mobile phones (http://www.foneshop.com)
The main outcome from the go-ahead of the merger is that Orange and T-Mobile can now combine its market share of 37% - 28.4 million customers – and work to providing an efficient blanket service.
European Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said: “I am happy that we managed to resolve the competition issues in this case quickly in close cooperation with the Member State concerned.”
Meanwhile, Tim Alexander, chief executive of Orange and the figurehead for the joint venture, said: "We're delighted. This represents an exciting step in our ambition to set new standards for mobile customers in Britain. We'll offer better value, better service, better network speed and coverage and will create the biggest and best mobile company in the UK."
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