Hutchison 3G Austria (H3G), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, has taken over Orange Austria to become the third largest mobile operator in Austria. The deal, valued at $1.7 billion (1.3-billion-euro), received European and Austrian regulatory approval, giving H3G the opportunity to push ahead with its plan to build a nationwide LTE network in the country.

H3G purchased the company from Mid Europa Partners (MEP) and France Telecom-Orange. MEP held 65 percent of Orange Austria while France Telecom held the other 35 percent stake. Commenting on the deal, Jan Trionow, head of local unit Hutchison 3G Austria, said in a company statement, ""We are delighted that, after undergoing a lengthy regulatory process, we have finally been able to close this acquisition.

 "We can now get down to focusing all our efforts on playing a leading role in developing the future of the Austrian mobile market,"he said. "I am particularly looking forward to working with the combined talents and commitment of both existing and new colleagues in the company, to push forward with building a nationwide LTE network in Austria within the next two years. This will enable us to further strengthen our position as the operator with the best network in the country."

As part of the overall transaction, some frequencies, base stations and the mobile phone provider Yesss!, as well as certain other intellectual property of Orange Austria will be sold to Telekom Austria.

An H3G statement said that along with its existing customers, all Orange customers will be able to benefit from the company's commitment to providing high-quality, high-speed and high-reliability mobile Internet access, while offering the best value for money.

H3G is committed to building further on its strong record of customer service in providing high-quality voice, Internet and mobile multimedia services. It will be able to challenge the established mobile operators even more intensively than it has until now.