Everything Everywhere (EE) is negotiating with European Union regulators in a bid to delay the sale of spectrum worth £418 million (€478.3 million) it was ordered to relinquish as a condition of the Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merger, according to a Bloomberg report.
EE, which reluctantly offered to hand over 25 per cent of its 1800MHz spectrum to get the merger approved, now wants to retain the frequencies due to repeated delays to the UK auction of LTE frequencies which has now slipped into next year. According to the Bloomberg report, which cited unnamed sources, EE asked regulators if it could reduce the amount of spectrum it needs to divest.
Commenting on the situation, Matthew Howett, an analyst with the London research firm Ovum, told Bloomberg that Vodafone and O2 would be most likely to bid for the EE spectrum when it becomes available.
Separately, EE has announced the latest phase of its Orange/T-Mobile network integration that will see 3G subscribers being able to use either network. The switch will start next week and be rolled out across the UK network over the next few months.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this eWeek Europe article
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