Vodafone And Three Are Merging To Become The Largest Mobile Phone Operator In The UK

Vodafone and the owner of Three have agreed on the deal to merge both of the British telecom networks. With this merging, these companies will together form the UK’s largest mobile phone operator.

Vodafone is the UK’s third-largest telecom operator and Three is the UK’s fourth-largest telecom operator. When the merging is complete, the new company will have more than 27 million subscribers, putting it behind rivals EE, owned by BT, Virgin Media O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, and the US-listed company Liberty Global.

The talks have been ongoing for some time between Vodafone and CK Hutchison, the Hong Kong–controlled owner of Three. In the newly merged company, Vodafone will have 51% and CK Hutchinson will have 49% of the combined business.

It is said that the merged business would invest £11 billion in the UK over 10 years. Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone’s group chief executive, May, announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs as part of making the company more on track from the struggling state of the company when former chief executive Nick Read was in office.

Vodafone UK is a British telecommunications service provider, and a part of Vodafone Group, the world’s second-largest mobile phone company. Vodafone has about 17.9 million subscribers as of May 2023. Vodafone has been the longest-running network in the UK since its first cellular network call was made in January 1985.

Hutchison 3G UK Ltd or Three UK is a British telecommunications and internet service provider currently based in Reading, England. It is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, operating under the global ‘Three’ brand. Three has about 10.3 million subscribers as of May 2023. The company was launched on March 3, 2003, as the UK’s first commercial 100% 3G network.