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EU: Hutchison says Three-O2 merger is the only way to compete with BT

By  |  August 10, 2015

Hutchison Whampoa will tell the European Commission (EC) that if approval for the proposed merger of Three and O2 does not go ahead, both companies will be unable to compete with Vodafone and a BT-owned EE, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The proposed £10.25 billion takeover of O2 would create the UK’s largest mobile operator by customer number with 33 million customers, and Hutchison is prepared to argue the deal would create a strong rival for the other two operators rather than reduce competition.

Central to its argument is that Three and O2’s combined spectrum holdings amount to just 27.4 percent of the available airwaves in the UK – roughly the same as Vodafone but less than EE’s 45 percent.

Full content: The Telegraph

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