Home
 » ISP News » 
Sponsored Links

Virgin Media UK Lends its Support to a Three UK and O2 Merger

Friday, Feb 5th, 2016 (9:41 am) - Score 860

Cable operator Virgin Media (Liberty Global) has today spoken out in favour of the proposed £10.25bn merger between mobile operators Three UK (CK Hutchison Holdings) and O2 (Telefonica), with the provider adding that “‎any competition concerns can be addressed without blocking [the deal]“.

The response came in stark contrast to Ofcom’s CEO, Sharon White, who earlier this week made her objections open for all to see by warning that fewer mobile operators would result in less competition, higher prices for consumers and greater complexity in network sharing arrangements (here).

Since then Three UK’s parent has committed to a number of promises in order to balance against Ofcom’s concern, such as highlighting a plan for £5bn worth of network investment and a pledge not to raise prices for the next 5 years (here). However it will take more than that to convince the European Commission, which will have the final say.

Now the merger has won additional support from Virgin Media, which incidentally also gave mild support to the prior merger between BT and EE. In the latter case Virgin argued that the EE deal should mean that BT is big enough to take on all of the responsibility for the Government’s proposed 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband. Naturally.

Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media CEO, said:

“‎The Commission has previously cleared mobile mergers which resulted in a reduction in the number of mobile operators from four to three, subject to wholesale remedies. In two of these cases, Austria and Ireland, Virgin Media’s parent company Liberty Global provides vigorous competition and consumer choice as a result of taking EU remedies.

The same can be true in the UK. A combined O2-Three could have more to offer consumers and, crucially, more capacity for other providers who want to drive competition in their own right. With the right remedies, this deal could stimulate not curb competition.”

Those in favour of the Three UK and O2 merger also argue that it could improve network coverage and would help the operator to compete with BT’s new behemoth.

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Sky Broadband UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5444)
  2. BT (3497)
  3. Politics (2513)
  4. Openreach (2285)
  5. Business (2242)
  6. Building Digital UK (2227)
  7. FTTC (2040)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1955)
  9. Statistics (1770)
  10. 4G (1649)
  11. Virgin Media (1603)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1446)
  13. Wireless Internet (1384)
  14. Fibre Optic (1384)
  15. FTTH (1380)
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon