T-Mobile and Orange sign final agreement

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, the two parent companies of Orange and T-Mobile, have signed a final agreement over a merger between the two networks.

This means that the terms set out when the merger was announced in September are binding, with both sides happy with the other's business following the due diligence procedure to make sure there were no nasty surprises.

This means that both are now bound to see the merger through, although it won't be finalised until later next year, and still depends on the relevant authorities in the UK will allow the merger to continue.

Question marks

Although the two networks combining would instantly create a market leader in terms of consumer share, the Competition Commission is unlikely to stop the move going ahead as other countries, such as Spain have fewer networks and this helps keep prices competitive.

There are still question marks hanging over spectrum allocation (the frequency used to supply mobile broadband, with each network having previously bid for certain sections of said spectrum) as there may be question marks over how much the merger will consequently control.

However, it seems likely that the deal will still be completed in the future, although it may run be 2011 until all staff are assimilated into the new network (which we still hope will be called T'Orange).

Via Orange Newsroom