News

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have offered to sell off some of their spectrum rights in order to smooth out concerns regarding their UK merger.



T-Mobile and Orange UK have been planning to merge since September 2009. Early this year, the companies applied to the European Commission for regulatory approval of the deal.



There has been considerable speculation regarding the competition implications if the number 3 and the number 4 in the UK market combine forces to create the largest operator with 37% market share.



The EC is investigating with key players in the UK mobile sector, including Spain's O2, and local players, Vodafone and BT, to ask for their input.



Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom will try to avoid lengthy battles with UK and EU authorities by offering large enough concessions up front. The commission confirmed that it had received an offer of commitments from the two companies but has not commented on the details.



The merger would give the new operator a huge chunk of radio spectrum for mobile broadband services and, in particular, for the key 1800 Megahertz frequency. The merging partners have offered to sell off part of the spectrum and have also offered some concessions over network sharing to 3, the country's smallest operator.



T-Mobile UK says that they still hope to close the deal and implement the joint venture by the middle of 2010.