Deutsche Telekom has not proposed remedies to the European Commission to relieve its competition concerns over the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Tele2 Netherlands. The company argued its standpoint in a hearing at the Commission on 08 October, including a range of "promises" designed to lessen the concerns, Telecompaper has learned. The Commission has set a deadline of 30 November for deciding on the deal.
Tele2 and rivals also gave evidence at the hearing. T-Mobile declined to comment on the matter.
The takeover of Tele2 by T-Mobile would reduce the Dutch market from four to three mobile operators. Tele2 has said its Dutch subsidiary was not viable as a standalone business, Reuters reports. "It's a not sustainable position," Tele2 CEO Anders Nilsson told the Morgan Stanley European Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona. "It's lack of scale, basically. It's an FMC (fixed-to-mobile converged) market where we don't have FMC ability."
Nilsson declined to say if he expects the deal to be approved. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges told the conference that his team had made "a very aggressive pitch" to regulators. "We are challenging a duopoly," he said.
