Less than nine months after first announcing a joint venture agreement that would bring their 27 million UK customers under a new, single network provider, the merger of Vodafone and Three UK has hit a regulatory hurdle, after an initial investigation into the deal by the country’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded it could lead to higher prices for customers and affect investment in UK mobile networks, with mobile customers facing higher prices and reduced quality.
The potential merger was first announced in June 2023, and saw the operators’ parents, Vodafone Group and CK Hutchison Group Telecom (CKHGT), enter into binding agreements to combine their UK telecoms assets, in which Vodafone would own 51% of the combined entity under the working title of MergeCo, and CKHGT would own 49%. The deal would combine two of the four UK mobile network operators and…
