{"id":37351,"date":"2024-02-27T11:04:51","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T11:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=37351"},"modified":"2024-02-27T11:04:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T11:04:51","slug":"virgin-media-o2-ceo-raise-vodafone-and-three-uk-merger-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/virgin-media-o2-ceo-raise-vodafone-and-three-uk-merger-concerns.html","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Media O2 CEO Raise Vodafone and Three UK Merger Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CEO of broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media<\/a> and O2<\/a> (VMO2), Lutz Sch\u00fcler, has – perhaps predictably – raised competition concerns over the proposed mobile merger between Vodafone<\/a> and Three UK<\/a>, not least because he believes the pair will end up controlling too much radio spectrum. Network sharing is another issue.<\/p>\n

The merger (here<\/a>), if approved, would see Vodafone<\/a> retain 51% of the business and CK Hutchison (Three UK<\/a>) hold 49%. Both mobile operators have naturally promoted it as something that would be \u201cgreat for customers, great for the country and great for competition<\/em>,\u201d while also proposing a major \u00a311bn<\/strong> investment to upgrade the UK\u2019s 5G<\/a> mobile (broadband) infrastructure and network coverage.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> The combined business aspires to reach more than 99% of the UK population with their 5G<\/a> Standalone (SA) network by 2034 and push fixed wireless access (mobile home broadband) to 82% of households by 2030, among other things.<\/div>\n

As part of this, the Competition and Markets Authority<\/a> (CMA) has already launched a formal Phase 1 investigation into the proposed mega-merge (here<\/a>), which will next month almost certainly be extended to a deeper Phase 2 investigation – as is fairly normal for deals of this size and complexity. A separate investigation is also underway to check if there are any national security concerns (here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The CEO of VMO2, Lutz Sch\u00fcler<\/strong>, has today waded into this phase of events by highlighting that their main concerns relate to the impact on their existing network sharing agreement (Vodafone<\/a> and O2<\/a> have a network sharing agreement, as do Three UK<\/a> and EE<\/a> \/ BT<\/a>) and how much radio spectrum frequency the new mobile giant will hold.<\/p>\n

Radio spectrum has a huge impact on network coverage and performance, which impacts competition, and Ofcom<\/a> often has a headache trying to balance all of these competing interests when they release new bands. The fact that the merged company would thus hold almost 50% of all mobile spectrum and just under 60% of C-band frequencies (valuable for 5G<\/a>) is not to be overlooked, but unpicking all of this will be a tricky problem for the CMA.<\/p>\n

In addition, Ofcom<\/a> has ruled that they won’t proceed with their planned auction of spectrum in the 26GHz and 40GHz bands until after the merger has been decided (here<\/a>), which helps to highlight the significance of the deal.<\/p>\n

Lutz Sch\u00fcler said (Telegraph<\/a>):<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We understand the industry logic [for the merger] and need to support economies of scale. But we could not support our customers if the deal goes ahead without an agreement on spectrum and network sharing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reality here is that VMO2’s CEO is simply saying exactly what we’d expect him to, since his focus will be on the aspects of the deal that could negatively impact their business. But it’s also widely expected that the CMA will be able to find solutions to this, which seems very likely to result in some degree of spectrum divestment and an agreement on changes to network sharing.<\/p>\n

The bigger challenge for the merger will still be in convincing regulators that the UK market is better off with three mobile network operators, rather than four. Ofcom<\/a> and the CMA have historically tended to dislike big mobile-only mergers due, in part, to concerns that reducing the number of primary mobile operators might result in higher prices for consumers and damage competition at the wholesale (MVNO) level.<\/p>\n

On the issue of pricing. Three UK and its related MVNOs (e.g. Smarty<\/a>, iD Mobile<\/a>) have historically tended to position themselves more as low-cost brands, while Vodafone tends to be a bit more premium. Vodafone did try to balance this a bit via their own MVNO brand, VOXI<\/a>, but Three and its partners often still work out cheaper. On the other hand, Vodafone and Three UK have already committed not to make merger-linked price hikes (here<\/a>), although the CMA may seek something a bit more binding.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, in recent years both the government and regulators appear to have softened their stance, which is partly due to a 2020 ruling by the European Court of Justice<\/strong> (here<\/a>) \u2013 this found that having only 3 operators still made for a competitive market. At the same time, both Ofcom and the Government seem to be signalling that they’re softer on the idea than they were before, although how soft will be a matter for the CMA.<\/p>\n

The CMA has a tricky balancing act to perform with this one. In our view, the merger stands a better chance of being approved than rejected in the current climate, but it will come down to a question of concessions (i.e. what the parties can offer to help placate the concerns). The regulator’s final decision on the proposed merger between Three UK and Vodafone isn\u2019t expected until September 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CEO of broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), Lutz Sch\u00fcler, has – perhaps predictably – raised competition concerns over the proposed mobile merger between Vodafone and Three UK, not least because he believes the pair will end up controlling too much radio spectrum. Network sharing is another issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,32,38,63,475,96],"class_list":["post-37351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk_isp_news","tag-law","tag-o2","tag-politics","tag-three-uk","tag-virgin-media","tag-vodafone"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ispreview\/112003120710157278","error":""},"yoast_head":"\nVirgin Media O2 CEO Raise Vodafone and Three UK Merger Concerns - ISPreview UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The CEO of broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), Lutz Sch\u00fcler, has - perhaps predictably - raised competition concerns over the proposed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/virgin-media-o2-ceo-raise-vodafone-and-three-uk-merger-concerns.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virgin Media O2 CEO Raise Vodafone and Three UK Merger Concerns - 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