Orange and T-Mobile Say No to Mobile Broadband Spectrum Sharing
Prominent mobile broadband service providers operating in the United Kingdom, Orange and T-Mobile that are all set to form the biggest mobile broadband supplier in the UK through a merger, have sparked off a new controversy by refusing to spare even a chunk of the radio spectrum allocated to them for the benefit of their rival mobile broadband providers in the country.
The owners of the mobile operators Orange UK and T-Mobile, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom had recently struck an agreement to merge their operations in the United Kingdom into a joint venture firm under 50:50 share basis. The merger also implies that the new entity will own a total radio spectrum of 170MHz.
The move is believed to irk many companies and other bodies; especially the telecommunications regulator of the United Kingdom, Ofcom. It is perceived that the regulator would not be pleased with fact that the entity formed as the result of the merger would own around 37 per cent of the UK market and more than half of the radio spectrum available. The matter could get more heated up owing to a suggestion made in the report of the ISP (Independent Spectrum Broker) prior to the merger that the ownership of the spectrum should be capped at 120MHz.
On the other side, the two mobile broadband operators have also received an impetus from the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) for the completion of the deal, as the latter has already hinted it would not force a competition review on the merger. However, Ofcom seems to be determined not to allow any consumer harm that could include the forced relinquishment of some spectrum.
