The merger between the Dutch branches of T-Mobile and Tele2 will be completed on 2 January 2019. The companies wanted to merge for more than a year, but only received permission from the European Commission last November. That was worried about the competition in the Dutch market.
But since January 2, 2019, the merger has been completed anyway. T-Mobile and Tele2 report this on the site Founders. T-Mobile announces that it will immediately start making a concrete action plan to realise its promises to the Netherlands. These promises include the roll-out of a 5G network, fibre optics and the Internet of Things.
Long process
The merger between the Dutch branch of T-Mobile and the Dutch branch of Tele2 has been looked at for a long time. The amalgamation of the companies means that there are only three suppliers in the Netherlands with their own network: VodafoneZiggo, KPN and the enlarged T-Mobile. For this reason, the European Commission did not want to authorise the merger first.
It was feared that the merger would reduce competition in the market. This could lead to an increase in prices for consumers, who would then not benefit from the best possible offer. In the end, T-Mobile made promises to the European Commission, which convinced them that the merger would take place anyway.
For the Dutch activities of Tele2, T-Mobile eventually counts 190 million euros. In addition, Tele2’s parent company will receive a 25 percent stake in the merged company. Together, the companies want to compete more with VodafoneZiggo and KPN: in their own words, they can do so because of their greater combined strength.
Realising promises
Søren Abildgaard, the CEO of T-Mobile Netherlands, has announced that 2019 will be an exciting year for his company. According to him, it is a year in which we are going to turn the telecom sector upside down in order to offer the customer even more choice. This includes the establishment of a nationwide 5G network. The company hopes that the realisation of 5G by 2020 will already be a reality.
In addition, the company is rolling out fibre-optics at an accelerated pace and is starting with that in The Hague. In 2019, it will connect 30,000 addresses to fibre optics. Outside The Hague, the company is still rolling out the 4G service for Home, which allows people in the Netherlands to use the Internet more quickly.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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