The new CEO of T-Mobile Austria has renewed earlier calls by the company that the merger of Orange Austria and Hutchison should be subject to spectrum related antitrust remedies. Otherwise the deal would result in severe disadvantages for other players…
The new CEO of T-Mobile Austria has renewed earlier calls by the company that the merger of Orange Austria and Hutchison should be subject to spectrum related antitrust remedies. Otherwise the deal would result in severe disadvantages for other players in the market.
T-Mobile specifically argues that the merger would give Hutchison access to two adjacent licences in the 1800MHz range, suitable for LTE.
Calling for refarming of frequencies, T-Mobile Austria CEO Andreas Bierwirth told Austrian business paper Wirtschaftsblatt that the company expects “a fair allocation of frequencies.” If a merged Hutchison/Orange would be allowed to keep all the licences, it would gain a two year advantage over competitors.
He threatened that T-Mobile would significantly reduce investments if the issue was not addressed by regulators. Asked by the paper if T-Mobile could even withdraw from the country, Bierwirth replied that he would “not exclude any option.”
Hutchison recently submitted an amended set of remedies to the European Commission in reply to a formal “statement of objections” by the regulator in September. The EC subsequently extended the deadline for the investigation to 21 December. According to European merger control regulation, the most recent remedies package is final and the companies cannot offer further concessions going forward.
While details of Hutchison’s final remedies package remained undisclosed, it is known that the company previously offered to allow MVNOs to operate on its network going forward, including MVNOs that want to offer 4G services. It has already signed an agreement with UPC for the launch of an MVNO provided the merger closes successfully. Tele2 is also said to be interested.
Andreas Bierwirth, previously CFO of Austrian Airlines, took over at the helm of T-Mobile Austria at the beginning of September.
