UK govt approves Vodafone-Three merger after security review

The British government on Thursday made a final order to conditionally approve the proposed merger between Vodafone’s UK operation and Hutchison’s Three UK, following a detailed national security assessment of the telecom deal.

The UK’s Cabinet Office said security conditions to approve the deal include the companies setting up a “National Security Committee” to oversee sensitive work that relates to or could affect national security.

A separate investigation into the merger by Britain’s competition regulator is ongoing, after the watchdog last month said it would need to open an in-depth investigation after the parties did not offer remedies to ease competition concerns.

The tie-up between Vodafone and Three, announced last year, will reduce the number of mobile networks in Britain from four to three.

In a joint statement, Vodafone and Three said they were pleased with the national security approval and would continue to work with the Competition and Markets Authority.

“We strongly believe (the merger) will strengthen competition in the UK’s mobile sector and enable a significant step-up in the UK’s mobile network infrastructure,” they said.

Under conditions laid out, the security committee set up by the companies will be required to provide regular updates and information to the UK government and the order also requires the telecom firms to establish a technical group within the committee to monitor specific topics. Reuters