Orange and T-Mobile set to merge

ORANGE and T-Mobile look set to be given the official go ahead for their proposed merger. Orange, owned by France Telecom, and T-Mobile, which has Deutsche Telekom as its parent company, have almost 30 million combined customers, which will make them the largest telecoms provider in the UK.

However, it is not yet been confirmed what, if any, concessions the EC will call for, with both Orange and T-Mobile having previously offered to give up some of their networking industry presence, including 25 per cent of their UK bandwidth holdings in order to be allowed to merge, although it is expected that the two brands will remain the same.

The commission has yet to inform the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) about its decision, and the merger could still face a challenge from Vodafone and O2, which are understood to be undecided about the concessions made over spectrum. It is understood that both the Office of Fair Trading and the sector watchdog Ofcom have recommended that the European Commission give the plans its official approval.  

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