Vodafone and Three’s $19B merger has been cleared by UK regulators – with conditions

The UK’s antitrust regulator has given the green light to a long-planned merger between the country’s two biggest telecoms operators.

Vodafone and Three make up two of the UK’s four mobile network operators (MNOs), alongside O2 and EE. So, when the duo revealed plans to raise $19 billion last June, it always attracted scrutiny. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched its first “phase 1” investigation in January, before progressing to a more in-depth investigation in June, after conducting market research and gathering industry feedback.

Then in September, the CMA delivered its interim results, concluding that the merger could lead to higher consumer costs, reduced services, and reduced investment in UK mobile networks. But it stopped short of blocking the deal, instead suggesting remedies that could be found to ease its concerns.

And this leads us to today, when the CMA finally agreed to the deal – with conditions. It said both companies must sign binding commitments to “invest billions” to roll out a combined 5G network across the UK. operators (MVNOs) will also continue to have pre-set contract terms for the same period.

These obligations will be overseen by the CMA and Ofcom, the UK’s regulatory and competition authorities for the communications industry.

“It is important that this merger does not harm competition, which is why we have spent time looking at how it could affect the telecommunications market,” said Stuart McIntosh, chairman of the CMA committee, in a statement. “Having carefully considered the evidence, and the extensive feedback we have received, we believe that the merger could increase competition in the UK mobile sector and should be allowed to go ahead – but only if Vodafone and Three agree to implement our proposed measures. .”