The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has warned that a proposed merger between two of the country's largest Mobile Broadband operators, T-Mobile and Orange UK, "threatens significantly to affect competition in mobile telecommunications." Rivals Three (3) , O2 and Vodafone have all called for an investigation.

The joint group would effectively command 40% of the mobile market and put 84% of the 1800Mhz radio spectrum in the hands of just one operator. 1800MHz is currently used for 2G voice communication services but, under Digital Britain plans, it could be opened up for use by Mobile Broadband services.


The OFT's move might be used to extract several Digital Britain friendly spectrum concessions from T-Orange. This would help the government to realise some of their goals, such as making a minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps available to everybody in the UK by 2012. However that target is now beginning to look extremely unstable, not least because of the looming general election.