The long-awaited merger of Thai telco operators True Corporation and Total Access Communication (DTAC) has been completed.

In doing so the merger has created a new entity: True Corp.

The completion of the merger was confirmed by Norwegian telco Telenor Group, which is also the parent company of DTAC. Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) and China Mobile are both backers of True.

The $7.3 billion merger was approved by Thai regulators and will combine True's 32.2 million subscribers with DTAC's 19.6 million mobile subscriptions to form Thailand's biggest mobile operator.

On top of this, it will bring five million broadband connections and 3.2 million pay-TV subscribers together, said Telenor.

True Corp has an enterprise value of more than $20 billion, while the company plans to raise $200 million in venture capital to focus on new digital products in the country.

The move has not been accepted by everyone, however, with top Thai lawyer Somboon Boonyapirom, submitting a petition to the Norwegian embassy in Bangkok in October last year.

Boonyapirom argued that the merger violates Thailand's laws around competition, noting that any potential deal would leave just two major mobile network operators in the market.

However, the NBTC gave the merger the green light, voting in favor of the deal by 3 to 2, with QCOnline reporting at the time that the casting vote came after 10 hours of deliberation.

True Corp chairman Suphachai Chearavanont has been named chair of the new operator's board, while Joergen Christian Arentz Rostrup, Telenor's head of Asia has been appointed vice chair.