Numericable’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile France has been approved by the country’s competition regulator — providing the cable giant allows rivals to lease capacity on its fixed broadband network so they can devise their own fixed-mobile offerings.

Numericable signed a deal to acquire the MVNO in June.

Virgin Mobile, owned by Carphone Warehouse and the Virgin Group, rents capacity on mobile operator SFR’s network.

The proposed €17 billion takeover by Numericable of SFR received its own green light from France’s competition authority last month.

The SFR approval was based on certain conditions, one of which was reiterated by the authority for the Virgin deal, namely offering access to Numericable’s network.

Others included divesting the wireless business and retail stores of Outremer Telecom, which was acquired by Altice a year ago.