Vodafone UK, Three tie-up to lessen mobile competition: regulator
by AFP Staff Writers
London (AFP) Sept 13, 2024

A planned merger of Vodafone's British mobile phone arm and that of Three "is likely to lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the UK", antitrust regulators said Friday.

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave its conclusion in provisional findings of a probe into the tie-up involving Three UK, which is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison.

The proposed merger, announced in June last year, aims to create Britain's biggest mobile operator with 27 million customers and to accelerate rollout of faster 5G connectivity.

British mobile phone giant Vodafone and Three UK have a target value of �16.5 billion ($22 billion) for the new group.

In a statement Friday, the CMA "provisionally concluded that the deal is likely to lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the UK".

The regulator added that "the merger would lead to price increases for tens of millions of mobile customers, or see customers get a reduced service such as smaller data packages in their contracts".

Among other findings, it said "the deal could negatively impact" wholesale telecoms customers which rely on Britain's four network operators -- Vodafone, Three, BT EE and Virgin Media O2 -- to provide their own mobile services.

The CMA did note, however, that "the merger could improve the quality of mobile services and bring forward the deployment of next generation 5G networks and services".

The watchdog said it would consult on its findings and explore potential solutions to its concerns before reaching a final decision by mid-December.

It added that Vodafone and Three UK could remedy the concerns by various measures, notably "legally-binding investment commitments overseen by the sector regulator and measures to protect both retail customers and customers in the wholesale market".

Unsurprisingly, Vodafone and Three UK said they "disagree" with the CMA's provisional findings.

"By all measures, the merger is pro-growth, pro-customer and pro-competition. It can, and should, be approved by the CMA," they said in a joint statement.

"This is not a final decision, and we look forward to working with the CMA to secure approval."

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