It appears that the EU Commission has now given the go ahead for Deutsche Telekom’ T-Mobile UK, and France Telecom’ Orange UK to merge as a single UK operation, and that the integration can commence immediately and the closure of the transaction expected in spring reports intomobile.
The new T-Mobile UK and Orange UK join venture will have a board consisting of member from both Deutsche Telekom and France telecom, while the Orange UK and T-Mobile UK brands will continue to be used for a further eighteen months after the completion of the deal.
Both France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom agreed to divest 2×15 MHz of joint GSM spectrum by the end of 2011 of which 2×10 MHz has to be cleared by the 30th of September 2013 and the remainder cleared by the 30th of September 2015, and the existing network sharing deal with 3UK was reinforced.
The merger of T-Mobile UK and Orange UK will give the join venture a customer base of approximately 29.5 million and should make it the number one mobile phone player in the United Kingdom. The thing is…anyone have any idea on what they will name the formation?
