Orange and P4 get green light to build shared LTE network

Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, UOKiK, has given permission for mobile network operators PTK Centertel (Orange) and P4 (Play) to deploy a combined Long Term Evolution (LTE) network via a newly created joint venture company, which they will then access on a wholesale basis. The new company will now be allowed to take part in the forthcoming 2.6GHz spectrum auction, UOKiK said. The possibility that the two networks would seek to set up a joint venture was first revealed back in June. At the time though, the two companies said that any joint venture initiative would be dependent on the terms of the licence auction, which incidentally are still to be confirmed. It has been suggested that the regulator may auction off just two blocks of radio spectrum in the expectation that network sharing will take place.