Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile is taking over the Dutch arm of Sweden’s Tele2 for €190m, the two companies said on Friday.

The new combine, which will be known as T-Mobile, will have 4.5 million customers in the Netherlands. The merger, which reduces the number of players on the Dutch telephony market to three, still has to be approved by the competition authorities.

Tele2 will retain a 25% stake in the new combine.

Tele2 chief executive Søren Abildgaard said the move will ‘strengthen our role as a challenger’.

‘This will give us a stronger position to keep on disrupting the mobile and fixed market and gives our customers a better alternative,’ he said in a Twitter statement.