Vodafone, Three execs tell lawmakers their UK merger will benefit 5G, jobs

Liberty Global

17/10/2023 12:19

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Executives from Vodafone
 VOD.L  and CK Hutchison's  0001.HK  Three UK unit said their 15
billion pound ($18 billion) merger would benefit Britain's
consumers, infrastructure and jobs, as lawmakers scrutinise the
planned tie-up.
    Vodafone and Three UK have pledged to invest 11 billion
pounds to build a 5G network for Britain as part of their bid to
secure backing from politicians, unions and competition
authorities for the merger announced in June.
    Britain's antitrust watchdog last week kicked off its
examination of the deal, while lawmakers from the business and
trade committee on Tuesday asked what the deal would mean for
jobs.
    "We believe that actually jobs will be created as a
consequence of this merger both for building the network, and to
create and support the IT systems, and to maintain this new
network," Vodafone UK's corporate affairs and sustainability
director Nicki Lyons said. 
    She said the companies were not giving numbers at this
stage, and conceded that head office duplication could be an
issue. 
    Trade union Unite has warned the deal will result in higher
bills and job losses. 
    Representatives from both the companies said that as the
current No. 3 and No. 4 players in Britain's mobile market they
did not have the scale to invest and compete against the two
biggest operators, BT's  BT.L  EE and VM O2, jointly owned by
Telefonica  TEF.MC  and Liberty Global  LBTYA.O . 
    They warned that without the deal, Britain's 5G network
would continue to lag that of other European nations. 
    "Neither us nor Vodafone can invest sufficiently to build
the type of 5G network that's needed," Three's Chief Technical
Officer David Hennessy said.
    The two companies have long known that a proposed merger
would face intense scrutiny from regulators who have previously
opposed deals that reduce the number of networks in major
markets from four to three. 
    But the tie-up would not result in price rises for
consumers, said Three's general counsel Stephen Lerner. 
    "We are not planning any increases in price," he said,
explaining the merged entity would be keen to price
competitively to ensure it filled the new capacity it wants to
build. 
    ($1 = 0.8223 pounds)

 (Reporting by Sarah Young
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((sarah.young@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 1109; Reuters
Messaging: sarah.young.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))