Gronox

The deal between Deutsche Telecom’s T-Mobile and Orange owner France Telecom would see further delays since the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has asked the European Commission to review the UK aspects of the proposed joint venture.

The deal was first announced on 8 September 2009 and at present the responsibility for the approval lies with the European Commission in Brussels. The company is looking forward to obtaining approval for the merger this month. However, both the consumer groups and the competition fear that Brussels will not take into consideration the large market share being acquired by T-Orange after the deal and the loss of customers by the small players.

This merger of two telecom giants is subject to close scrutiny by the competent authorities since the T-Orange merger is likely to create a monopoly in the telecom sector in the UK, thereby coming down more heavily on the consumers’ pockets. Hence, consumer groups have been campaigning against the merger and are looking forward to the review by the UK regulatory authorities. The OFT, meanwhile, is also concerned about the effects of the merger on other players in the UK telecom market, especially 3, which is the smallest player in the field.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 8:49 am and is filed under Life Of Telecommunication, Market Patrons, Technometer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.