Content Officer

The proposed merger of Orange and T-Mobile is expected to receive another setback due to the government’s new rule of broadband spectrum allocation that intends to cap the amount of spectrum held by any one operator.

The allocation forms of a part of the government’s pledge to provide everyone with a 2Mb broadband connectivity within three years from now. A reallocation is also required for ensuring a more effective broadband service, which has been one of the points of discussion between the state and mobile broadband providers across the UK.

It is also worth noting that the news of the merger between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Telecom’s Orange has created a lot of ripples in the industry. The new entity to be created from this merger is expected to be the largest mobile internet service provider with as much as 37% of the market share. It is also expected to decrease the competition in the market and limit consumer choices. However, the government’s regulation will curb the monopoly of the new entity to a large extent.

These new developments in the merger saga of the two service providers is quite likely to instigate the EU regulators to permit the UK authorities to investigate the merger, which in turn will stall any further move on that count. Moreover, both Orange and T-Mobile could be required to sell off some part of the broadband spectrum they would jointly hold as a result of this delay.