The UK’s consumer watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that it will need to open an in-depth probe into the merger of leading telcos Vodafone and Three.

The £15 billion merger of Vodafone’s UK business and CH Hutchison’s Three UK was first announced in June 2023, with the companies promising that the tie-up would provide British consumers with “a better network experience with greater coverage and reliability at no extra cost”.

The CMA however has been tracking the merger since, and has now announced that it will launch an investigation after the parent companies did not offer remedies to ease its competition concern.

While there are dozens of mobile operators in the UK, they all piggyback off the signal of the ‘big four’ networks – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone. It has been a long-held industry belief that the existence of four networks across the UK helps to keep prices low.

The merger of Three and Vodafone however would reduce the number of networks from four to three, a move which the CMA last month argued could leave consumers worse off.

The CMA had asked the parties to provide “meaningful solutions” to concerns that the merger would lead to higher prices for consumers and businesses,

On Thursday however the CMA said that it had been informed that the parties “would not be offering any undertakings," leading it to argue in favour of a probe.

In a joint statement, the companies said: "Vodafone UK and Three UK remain confident that the transaction will drive stronger competition in the mobile sector and give customers and businesses a step-change in network quality, speed, and coverage from day one.

“We will review the potential concerns raised by the CMA and look forward to continuing to engage constructively with them throughout the review."

---