“The future is bright. The future is Orange”. Not anymore, it seems, as Orange will be merging with T-Mobile. Both companies operate on the 1800Mhz spectrum band and in order for the merger to happen, they have offered to give up 25% of the band.

With the companies merged though, this would still mean they would own 84%, a figure which O2 and Vodafone UK claim that is still too high and they should sacrifice a higher percentage.

So what’s the fuss all about? 1800Mhz is used for 2G calls – the calls you make on your phone as standard – but it could also be opened up for 3G and the upcoming 4G service. The Office of Fair Trading thinks that one company having such a large percentage could be anti-competitive as it would nearly have a monopoly on the spectrum band; OFT has suggested an extensive investigation by the UK regulators to find a workable solution, which neither Orange nor T-Mobile are keen to see happen.

Watch this space for more developments.