- Vodafone-Three Fusion is officially completed
- The new Vodafonethree network is one of Britain’s largest
- The company promises big investments in UK 5G network
The British telephone networks Vodafone and three have announced the successful end of their mega -merge.
The move, which sees the number of British mobile networks shrinking from four to three, combines two of the country’s largest providers, with the new Vodafonthree business covering about 29 million British consumer and corporate customers.
“The merger will create a new strength in the UK mobile, transform the country’s digital infrastructure and drive Britain at the forefront of the European connection,” said Margherita della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO. “We are now eager to start our networking and quickly bring customers greater coverage and superior network quality. The transaction ends the transformation of vodafone in Europe, and after this transitional period we are now well positioned for growth in the future.”
Vodafonthree is here
Nearly 1000 days after the agreement was first announced, the new combined unit says it now seems to invest strongly in increasing British mobile coverage and infrastructure.
This includes £ 11 billion in expenses in the next 10 years (including £ 1.3 billion during this first year) to create what the company claims will be, “one of Europe’s most advanced 5G networks”, with 5G -standalone network investments that appear, “Interior Britain’s mobile infrastructure.”
Vodafonethree will be led by Max Taylor, CEO of Vodafone UK, with three UK’s Darren Purkis appointed CFO. It is not believed that any jobs will be lost in the merger.
The new company is owned 51% of Vodafone and 49% of CKHGT, parent company for three UK via its CK Hutchison arm.
“As we have demonstrated in other European markets, scale enables the significant investments needed to deliver the world -legislative mobile networks that our customers expect, and Vodafone and three fusion give it scale,” noted Canning Fok, Vice President of CK Hutchison and executive chairman of CKHGT.
No pricing changes or other changes in pricing strategies were mentioned, but apart from the cosmetic changes, it seems that customers may have suffered from worrying about.
This despite initial warnings from the UK’s competition and market authority, which had previously warned the merger could “lead to price increases for tens of thousands of millions of mobile customers, or see customers get a reduced service, such as smaller data packages in their contracts.”
CMA had also highlighted potential effects on MVNOs such as Lyca Mobile, Sky Mobile and Lebara, using the existing network operators, making it more difficult for MVNOs to “secure competitive expressions”.
In December 2024, however, CMA gave its approval to the agreement and said it was satisfied with an obligation to invest and expenses from Vodafonthree would avoid any of these potential concerns.
