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UK: Three accuses EE and Vodafone of stifling mobile competition

By  |  September 6, 2016

The chief executive of mobile operator Three has accused EE and Vodafone of hoarding rights to scarce radio spectrum to stifle competition, in the latest phase of a campaign for regulators to intervene.

Dave Dyson said his bigger rivals had deliberately acquired rights to airwaves they did not need in order to stop Three competing properly in the interests of consumers.

He said: “EE and Vodafone are currently sitting on spare spectrum which is just fundamentally wrong.

“That’s a national assets not being used by anyone at a point in time when ourselves or O2 would immediately put that spectrum to use.”

EE and Vodafone have around 75 megahertz of unused spectrum, Mr Dyson said, roughly equivalent to Three’s entire portfolio.

Three is under increasing pressure as the smallest mobile operator in the market, after an attempted merger with O2 was blocked by the European Commission earlier this year. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, argued the deal would reduce choice and competition.

Full Content: Telegraph

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