After announcing intentions to merge last year, Orange and T-Mobile will now be marketed under the Everything Everywhere brand, although the two will retain their own distinct iconography and advertising.

Everything Everywhere will make an appearance in promotional material from both of the providers and it is believed that T-Mobile will begin to offer home and business customers the chance to sign up to fixed line broadband services. This is because it can now benefit from Orange’s network and expertise in a market of which it has little direct knowledge.

Coalitions seem to be flavour of the week and Everything Everywhere will result in other new services which may be of interest to business broadband users, including the creation of a far wider network of Wi-Fi hotspots in key areas. This would allow T-Mobile and Orange business connections to compete with BT business broadband packages, offering greater coverage whenever people need to get online when away from the office.

The merger gives T-Mobile and Orange the largest mobile broadband network in the UK, with more masts and more inclusive accessibility than any other firm. Everything Everywhere will be opening 100 new retail stores to complement the 700 or so existing locations, with the intention of educating potential customers as to the latest broadband and mobile products.

Orange, O2 and Vodafone have offered fixed line broadband to customers in the past, but now T-Mobile will be able to join in, although it looks as though it could be many months before the first broadband packages appear.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “There were concerns that the Orange and T-Mobile merger would give them an unfair advantage, but the winner here will be the customer, because more competition in the broadband market means lower prices and better service.”

A new study has found that people looking for the best nationwide roaming experience with mobile broadband should opt for T-Mobile.

The marketing of mobile broadband can often obscure how the different providers will be able to perform in the hands of the consumer and so the study took six of the UK’s largest mobile broadband providers on the road to see how well they stack up.

The journey took the Broadband Genie team from Cambridge to Bournemouth by rail and during the trip a variety of data-intensive tasks were carried out using different mobile broadband services.

It was discovered that, in general, there was no single provider that performed notably below the basic expectations of the testers and tasks such as downloading audio tracks and streaming content from the internet were by and large achievable.

Last year during the same study it was discovered that Vodafone was the outright winner, as its mobile broadband service was able to triumph in all of the tests that were thrown at it. This year things were not so good for any one provider, as each failed in at least one category.

The highest overall achiever this year was T-Mobile, whose mobile broadband service hit a maximum download speed of 4.8Mbps after it was clocked downloading a 13MB file in only 22 seconds.

The three slowest mobile broadband providers were Virgin Media, O2 and Orange, with 3 and Vodafone coming closer to matching T-Mobiles winning speeds.

In the last 12 months every major mobile broadband provider has upgraded their free USB dongles, except for O2, which is still using last year’s device.

Simon Gerrard, Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager commented “With wireless broadband prices falling, it is good to see mobile broadband providers keeping up on the technology front.”

The legal wrangling that has afflicted the sale and allocation of the digital spectrum may soon come to an end, with the UK government planning on holding auctions before 2010 is over.

The spectrum that is currently being disputed will eventually provide better mobile broadband availability and speeds for UK customers and it is hoped that the first services using it will be in operation by 2012.

Industry regulator Ofcom and the Department of Business Innovation and Skills ratified plans to sell the spectrum last week, signalling the conclusion of a long period of consultation that began in mid 2009.

Minister Stephen Timms said that the government had ensured that public interests were being protected under the new plans, but also confirmed that the business benefits would be considerable if the plans for the mobile broadband spectrum were instigated.

Mr Timms also said that high speed mobile broadband access would be available to a large proportion of the population as a result of the new plans.

The plans had to undergo some revisions after Orange and T-Mobile finalised a merger deal that was subsequently approved by the EU. The most important change for the networks and the public is the obligatory roll-out of near universal mobile broadband coverage falling at the feet of whichever organisation buys the 800MHz spectrum.

The range that is currently utilised by ageing 2G networking technology will be replaced with 3G and eventually 4G under the new plans and most mobile broadband providers will be able to make substantial improvements to their services as a result.

Experts believe that the auction will take place in early 2011. Simple Broadband’s Simon Gerrard said “The improvements that must now be made to the speed and availability of mobile broadband are exciting for all and incentives such as the Orange mobile broadband free laptop deal could soon be accompanied by tempting 4G options.”

Despite the recent announcement of the merger deal that will see Orange and T-Mobile become the largest single mobile broadband provider in the UK, the feelings of unity are not spreading to the rest of the providers, as the newly joined firms are refusing to share their portion of the radio spectrum.

Industry regulators Ofcom are likely to demand an explanation for the decision by Orange and T-Mobile, which will shut out the other major providers from over half of the available radio spectrum over which services including mobile broadband and cellular networking are provided.

Recent investigations into radio spectrum allocation carried out by an independent research firm advised capping the amount a single organisation could own and if the merger goes ahead then Orange and T-Mobile would be in serious breach of these recommendations.

There were some hopes that over the next year, all of the major mobile broadband providers would share their radio spectrum, allowing people with Vodafone mobile broadband USB dongles to benefit from improved coverage as part of industry-wide cooperation. This spirit of sharing has been somewhat dampened by recent events.

Although the merger of Orange and T-Mobile, which would give them close to a 40% stake in the mobile broadband market, was initially going to be subject to a competition review, it seems that murmurings from the Office of Fair Trading suggest independent investigations into the merger have been put on hold. This is likely to result in the formation of the new provider occurring far quicker than was previously thought.

Industry observers are fairly sceptical that any industry wrangling which takes place before the general election in 2010 will actually have any lasting effect. Changes in legislation are inevitable no matter which party comes to power, although the stubborn behaviour of all providers could sour relationships in the future.