UK’s competition regulator seeks review of T-Mobile/Orange merger

The UK's consumer and competition watchdog, Office of Fair Trading (OFT) wants an investigation into the proposed tie-up between the UK operations of T-Mobile and Orange on the grounds that the deal could jeopardise competition.

The OFT yesterday requested the Brussels-based European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union, to refer the UK aspects of the merger of T-Mobile UK and Orange UK to the OFT.

''The OFT's initial view, following consultation, is that the joint venture threatens significantly to affect competition in mobile telecommunications in the UK,'' a statement issued by OFT said.

Germany's Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom announced in September their plans to merge their UK operations T-Mobile UK and Orange UK respectively into a 50:50 joint venture company, creating the largest mobile phone operator in the UK. (See: Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom UK arms to merge)

A final agreement between the two partners was signed in November.

The new entity will have a combined mobile market share of approximately 37 per cent and a customer base of around 30 million, pushing the current market leader, Spain's Telefonica (O2) to the second place with 27 per cent and Vodafone to the third spot with 25 per cent of the market.