Vodafone and Three Merging Networks to Form UK's Largest Mobile Operator

[MacRumors]

British mobile phone operators Vodafone and Three UK have agreed a deal to merge their UK-based operations, which if approved by regulators will make it the biggest mobile network in the country.

Currently the biggest players in the UK mobile market are Virgin Media O2, with around 24 million customers, and EE, which has 20 million users.

Vodafone and Three UK are the third and fourth largest mobile firms, but the merger will give them around 27 million customers, taking their combined market share past Virgin Media O2's.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will now examine the merger, specifically to look at whether it will push up customer prices.

Vodafone and Three claimed the deal will be "great for customers, great for the country, great for competition," but the CMA may not see it that way.

The same competition watchdog in May blocked UK approval for Microsoft's proposed $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard.

Speaking to the BBC News, Karen Egan, head of mobile at research firm Enders Analysis, said similar deals in other countries had not led to price hikes, but added that "CMA's hawkish approach to mergers of late is not encouraging."

The Unite union, which represents Vodafone and Three workers, disagreed, saying that the deal was "reckless" and would "hike people's bills and mean job losses."

Vodafone has already set out plans to cut 11,000 jobs, with CEO and CFO Margherita Della Valle admitting in May that its "performance has not been good enough." Both companies have since indicated additional job cuts within five years if the merger is approved.

Article Link: Vodafone and Three Merging Networks to Form UK's Largest Mobile Operator

 

[markfc]

If it doubles the signal it might be worth it…EE are king still.

 

[seat_hydrant]

They looked at Canadian telecom profits and thought—how about us too!

 

[phenste]

please, someone, explain to me how megamergers like this (Warner Bros. Discovery, Microsoft/Activision Blizzard…I can see an argument for Sprint/T-Mobile because they both had sucky reception before the merger, but AT&T/Verizon still hold quite the mobile telecom duopoly) are good (edit: "great!") for competition

 

[ilikewhey]

please, someone, explain to me how megamergers like this (Warner Bros. Discovery, Microsoft/Activision Blizzard…I can see an argument for Sprint/T-Mobile because they both had sucky reception before the merger, but AT&T/Verizon still hold quite the mobile telecom duopoly) are good (edit: "great!") for competition

its not good for the little guy, more competition means better price for consumer.

 

[sw1tcher]

Currently the biggest players in the UK mobile market are Virgin Media O2, with around 24 million customers, and EE, which has 20 million users.

Vodafone and Three UK are the third and fourth largest mobile firms, but the merger will give them around 27 million customers, taking their combined market share past Virgin Media O2's.

This is like T-Mobile (at the time #3) and Sprint (at the time #4) merging.

The problem with this merger will be getting approval from the CMA since they blocked Three from buying O2 back in 2016.

EU blocks Three's takeover of O2

The European Competition commission blocks Telefonica's sale of O2 to Three owner CK Hutchison.

www.bbc.com

 

[Rob__Mac]

If it doubles the signal it might be worth it…EE are king still.

I swapped my 5G broadband from Vodafone to EE and got 600Meg down for about a day. Then something went wrong with their local cell tower and I've been regretting it ever since!

 

[Saturnine]

I don’t see this as a good thing. Less competition is rarely good for the customer, and the cost savings brought about are not passed on.

One of main concerns is how it might affect the MVNOs such as Voxi and Smarty. As they offer some of the cheapest deals in the market, I assume any consolidation of brands will also negatively impact customers.

 

[laptech]

The only things the merger would do is make thousands of employees redundant whilst making directors richer.

 

[contacos]

if Vodafone UK is anything like Vodafone Germany then good luck! they are the worst

 

[Dr McKay]

They better not mess with the pricing, I was with T-Mobile because they were cheap. They merged to become EE and swiftly went from the cheapest to most expensive network, I went with Three because they were the new cheapest network.

 

[crsh1976]

They looked at Canadian telecom profits and thought—how about us too!

Don't get me started on that neverending horror story..

 

[sw1tcher]

I swapped my 5G broadband from Vodafone to EE and got 600Meg down for about a day. Then something went wrong with their local cell tower and I've been regretting it ever since!

Maybe the 5G tower was taken down by people thinking it would stop the spread of Covid 🤣

 

[LV426]

please, someone, explain to me how megamergers like this (Warner Bros. Discovery, Microsoft/Activision Blizzard…I can see an argument for Sprint/T-Mobile because they both had sucky reception before the merger, but AT&T/Verizon still hold quite the mobile telecom duopoly) are good (edit: "great!") for competition

In theory, savings can be made by ripping out effort and expense that is duplicated across the organisation. In practise, you end up with an antagonised and disheartened workforce. Especially when you have an economics graduate in charge yelping "performance has not been good enough". Step 2, short term profits start to look good. Step 3, management eye up their stock options and get very happy at the prospect of selling the company on, which is only a matter of time. Step 4, the rich guys get richer and pick on someone else who is just dying to have their performance improved.

 

[beanbaguk]

Whenever I go back to the UK, I am always shocked at how terrible their networks perform. Seriously....it's garbage. 5G is next to useless, and 4G runs no better than 2-4Mbps. It's truly terrible. I put it down to population density, but that just means that the operators simply are not providing the necessary bandwidth capacity. London, for example, is atrocious!

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Now this is an actual monopoly CMA, not Microsoft trying to buy Activision Blizzard King

 

[Apple$]

They looked at Canadian telecom profits and thought—how about us too!

For those who don't know, we just had a big merger between Rogers and Shaw, spoiler Alert, the deal was approved after 2 years with the only thing is Shaw's Freedom Mobile must be divested to another company called Videotron based in Quebec.
So far, this seems to have spurred a long needed disruption to the Big Three, (Rogers, Bell, Telus) as Freedom introduced $50 40 GB plan that can be used in Canada and the USA to shake up the wireless market like T-Mobile in the US.

 

[KPOM]

There are also national security concerns as 3 is owned by a billionaire in Hong Kong with ties to the Chinese government. Vodafone has contracts with the UK government.

 

[klasma]

The only things the merger would do is make thousands of employees redundant whilst making directors richer.

The problem with such consolidations is that it tends to mess up operations, and corporate know-how gets lost when the most competent employees are leaving the shіt show.

 

[dlondon]

This is like T-Mobile (at the time #3) and Sprint (at the time #4) merging.

The problem with this merger will be getting approval from the CMA since they blocked Three from buying O2 back in 2016.

EU blocks Three's takeover of O2

The European Competition commission blocks Telefonica's sale of O2 to Three owner CK Hutchison.

www.bbc.com

I read in the press that the regulators are more likely to let this merger go through given similar mergers that have occurred in Europe. Must be a bit gutting for O2 though (although they have since merged with Liberty).

 

[Devyn89]

God, I hate mergers like this where they sound all schmoozy and then end up firing **** tonnes of people and shortly hiking prices.

 

[dlondon]

The problem with such consolidations is that it tends to mess up operations, and corporate know-how gets lost when the most competent employees are leaving the shіt show.

It took a while for Orange and T-Mobile to merge and become what EE is today. Their coverage is pretty good in most of the places I visit but they're expensive. I think Vodafone and Three are likely to take a while to merge operations so I don't think consumers will notice much in the short term.

 

[Kylo83]

I’m with EE and they are the best for speed but expensive

 

[one more]

This is like T-Mobile (at the time #3) and Sprint (at the time #4) merging.

The problem with this merger will be getting approval from the CMA since they blocked Three from buying O2 back in 2016.

EU blocks Three's takeover of O2

The European Competition commission blocks Telefonica's sale of O2 to Three owner CK Hutchison.

www.bbc.com

Back in 2016 the UK was still in the EU, so that merger was actually blocked by the EU anti-competitive lot.

Now that the UK are out, it will be interesting to see how this unravels.

 

[contacos]

Whenever I go back to the UK, I am always shocked at how terrible their networks perform. Seriously....it's garbage. 5G is next to useless, and 4G runs no better than 2-4Mbps. It's truly terrible. I put it down to population density, but that just means that the operators simply are not providing the necessary bandwidth capacity. London, for example, is atrocious!

Try Germany 😅 I am supposed to be with the network with the best coverage (Telekom) and the amount of times I still see the Edge symbol is ridiculous 🙈 2 weeks in Spain: nothing but LTE everywhere, even in the mountains outside of Barcelona. Back home in Berlin, EDGE between the airport and the city