UK telcos Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 have struck a new network sharing agreement with a provision that seems aimed at smoothing the path for Vodafone's planned merger with Three.
In a response to the CMA's ongoing investigation of the proposed coupling, BT said it was concerned that MergeCo would have"a disproportionate share of capacity and spectrum" in the country, and that this would harm competition., Vodafone and Three are said to hold as much as 49 per cent of all licensed bands between them, while Three is also part of a network-sharing joint venture with EE called MBNL.
"We believe that this new agreement addresses the issues we have voiced and the CMA outlined in its initial decision, and will now continue our engagement with the regulator in this spirit," VMO2 chief executive Lutz Schüler said in a statement. "The CMA is worried because it doesn't want MergeCo in both sharing agreements," the spokesperson said.