Would T-Mobile Orange Merger engender a Vodafone 3 Tie Up?

The approval for the Orange UK T-Mobile merger by the European Commission has definitely come as a blow to at least a few mobile broadband providers operating in the United Kingdom. Mainly on the grounds that the merger would not only give birth to the largest mobile operator in the country but also cut the competition considerably as the number of providers will be reduced to 4 from 5.

This may be the main reason for, if not in the open, the craving to move closer to each other by rival mobile broadband operators Vodafone and 3 UK. It is obvious that the two leading mobile operators of today O2 and Vodafone would be pondering over their competitive response strategies, although Vodafone that has predominantly stressed the revamping of its software brands besides its services of higher values could also take the adventurous step of acquiring the UK operations of 3 UK.

According to the comments of CCS Insight’s Shaun Collins given in an interview with Mobile Europe, such a contract firstly would appropriate in the competitive sense, as secondly Hutchinson was musing over options for 3 UK. He said that it would have been inconceivable if both the entities had not opened their minds on acquiring 3 UK, as 3 Uk and Vodafone had merged their operations in Australia to leave a track record beside the channels for communications being always there.

If a Vodafone 3 UK merger would be considerably under the threat of being bloacked by antitrust authorities, the former will engage in more serios talks with O2 over a network sharing deal that would be wider in range. As the two already enjoy a partial collaboration, merging of their RANs comprehensively would potentially create a market in the United Kingdom marked by the supremacy of two networks.