UK Giant not Slain by EC

European regulators have given the green light to the proposed merger between Orange and T-Mobile in the UK. As a result there is little to stop the creation of a new giant in the British mobile market. The pair were given the official blessing of the European Commission yesterday, having agreed to certain concessions. The decision means that the UK's own Office of Fair Trading will not be given the chance to review the merger. 

The OFT has formally withdrawn its request to be allowed to examine the get-together, saying that the companies had "offered remedies that fully address the OFT's outstanding competition concerns".  T-Mobile and Orange have apparently agreed to lose some of their 1800MHz spectrum, which is currently highly cherished for its data delivery aspect. The pair have also offered to strengthen their deals with 3, the UK's smallest operator.
For its part, telecoms watchdog, Ofcom, welcomed the move, saying "the agreed commitments from both parties are consistent with our objective of maintaining effective competition, which is in consumers' interests".

The new combined operator will boast a customer base of 29.5 million people, swiftly over-taking Vodafone and O2 to become Britain's biggest mobile service supplier. It will have revenues of approximately €8.5 billion. However, consumer group Which? raised concerns over the "indecent haste" of the approval saying protecting the interests of UK consumers had taken a "back seat".