How will proposed merger affect competition, prices?
The European Commission opened an investigation to assess whether the proposed joint venture between the Italian telecommunications businesses of Hutchison and VimpelCom is in line with the European Union regulations. The commission said it needs to make sure the JV doesn’t lead to higher prices, less competition and reduced innovation for mobile customers in the European country.
The transaction would combine VimpelCom’s subsidiary Wind with Hutchison’s subsidiary H3G, respectively the No. 3 and No. 4 largest mobile operators in Italy. If the merger is approved, the number of mobile network operators in Italy will drop from four to three, with the new entity the largest player in terms of the number of subscribers, followed by TIM and Vodafone. The commission also said the transaction would reduce the number of mobile operators able to host mobile virtual network operators.
“Prospective and existing MVNOs would have less choice of host networks and hence a weaker negotiating power to obtain favorable wholesale access terms,” the European body said in a statement. “The reduction in the number of competitors following the merger risks weakening competitive pressure and increasing the likelihood that MNOs would coordinate their competitive behavior and raise prices on a sustainable basis on the retail and wholesale markets.”
The commission was notified of the transaction on Feb. 5, and has until Aug. 10 to make a decision.
Wind launched LTE services in Italy in January 2014 using spectrum in the 800 MHz band; while H3G, which operates under the Three brand, currently use the 1800 MHz band to offer commercial LTE services.
Ericsson, Telefonica demonstrate live delivery of LTE-U
In other EMEA news, Ericsson and Telefónica said they have demonstrated live, over-the-air delivery of LTE-Unlicensed technology using Telefónica’s network.
The demo used the Ericsson RBS 6402 indoor pico cell solution supporting LTE, W-CDMA and Wi-Fi, 10 frequency bands and up to 300 megabit-per-second LTE carrier aggregation. LTE-U is a commercially available Ericsson Networks Software capability designed to allow operators to use unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum in combination with their licensed LTE spectrum.