London, 26/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Financial Times of Monday 26 August is reporting that the European Commission appears ready to authorise the German and British telecommunications operators, T-Mobile and MMO2, to share the cost of building third-generation (3G) mobile phone infrastructure in Britain. The British daily nonetheless adds that the Commission is not expected to announce the decision officially until it has granted a similar authorisation for the two firms for Germany. The final decision is expected to be taken after another month or so of negotiations, but the Financial Times observes that it is extremely rare for the Commission to reverse an initial decision. T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, and MMO2, a separate mobile phone operator that was spun off from the former monopoly British Telecom, say the agreement could save them up to 30% of the cost of the UMTS infrastructure. Stating that the agreement will not allow pooling of the two operators' full infrastructure, the Financial Times reports that Mario Monti, the competition Commissioner, may have competition concerns about plans for sharing radio networks.