EU OKs Telefonica To Buy UK's O2, With Conditions

EU OKs Telefonica To Buy UK's O2, With Conditions: "EU OKs Telefonica To Buy UK's O2, With Conditions
BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission Tuesday cleared Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA's plan to buy U.K. mobile operator O2 PLC, on condition Telefonica leave the FreeMove international roaming alliance.

After investigating the deal, the regulator found the combined companies could hurt consumers by charging too much for calls made outside their home networks, a service commonly known as roaming.

Telefonica is a member of FreeMove, where it cooperates on international phone calls with Europe's three largest network operators - France Telecom, Telecom Italia, and Deutsche Telekom. 02 is a part of the Starmap alliance, where a range of smaller telecommunications cooperate in a similar framework. "

This will hopefully shake up the UK market a bit. Telefonica's european offering may benefit. It's a pity spain don't do free minutes, only subsidised tariffs. Maybe this will benefit spanish mobile users as well.