M&A, IP, Patents The European Commission has approved Orange’s Spanish merger with MasMovil. The combined entity will have over 30 million mobile subscribers, 7.3 million fixed line subs, and 2.2 million TV customers. It comes as rumors spilled out of the EC concerning a planned relaxing of anti-merger rules for the sector, to ensure they can achieve the necessary scale needed to build ‘next generation networks.’ 5G Standalone AT&T and FirstNet have announced a ten-year $8 billion investment roadmap, which will create a 5G Standalone core network, add 1,000 new base stations in the next two years, and ensure that first responders in the USA receive always-on priority. T-Mobile USA has claimed a new 5G uplink record, of 345 Mbps,…