Orange to join T-Mobile-3 network share

Orange will on Friday announce it is joining Mobile Broadband Network Limited, the network-sharing joint venture between 3 and T-Mobile, ZDNet UK understands.

According to industry sources, Orange will contribute a few thousand of its own masts to MBNL, which will remain a 50-50 joint venture between 3 on one side and T-Mobile and Orange, rather than just T-Mobile as the deal currently stands, on the other.

The continuation of MBNL was a condition of the European Commission's approval of the merger of T-Mobile UK and Orange UK, under the auspices of another joint venture, Everything Everywhere. The Commission was worried that 3 might be squeezed out of the benefits of MBNL by the formation of Everything Everywhere, if its position in the JV was not assured.

MBNL involves its participants pooling their base station resources, so as to cut back on the number of masts needed while boosting coverage for all parties' customers.