TLC: ok EU merger Wind-H3G provided Iliad input – ANSA.it

BRUSSELS – EU antitrust go-ahead to the merger of Wind and H3G, subject to entry of Iliad on the Italian mobile phone market. “We can approve the agreement because Hutchison and VimpelCom have submitted substantial corrective measures that enable a new mobile network operator, Iliad, access to the Italian market,” said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. Today’s decision of the EU Commission is the result of a thorough investigation on the transaction involving the merger of Wind (subsidiary of VimpelCom) and H3G (a subsidiary of Hutchison), respectively third and fourth operator on the Italian retail market for services mobile telephony. Actual structural remedies offered by Hutchison and VimpelCom “dissolve all the doubts raised by the Commission in terms of competition” as it “will allow to enter the Italian market a new mobile network operator, the French telecommunications company Iliad” . In this way “the parties may grow by exploiting the benefits of the merger of their respective activities, while Italians mobile phone users continue to benefit from effective competition.”

In detail, the corrective measures to address concerns Brussels are: the transfer to the new operator of a given quantity of the mobile spectrum in the joint venture from different frequency bands (900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz). Then, the transfer / co-location (ie sharing) of several thousand sites for base stations moving from the joint venture to the new operator. Finally, a transitional arrangement (for access to 2G, 3G and 4G, and new technologies) that allows the new entrant to use the network of the joint venture to offer mobile services to customers nationwide until it has failed to establish its own network. In fact, the transfer of blocks of frequencies and mobile base station sites will allow the new operator to develop and launch its network in Italy and to act as a fourth mobile operator, providing retail services to consumers and access to services ‘wholesale to virtual network operators.

“today’s decision means that in Italy the sector to remain competitive, so that consumers can continue to enjoy innovative mobile services at fair prices and on networks quality, “said Vestager, stressing that” this case shows that European telecommunications companies can grow not only consolidated within the same country, subject to effective competition, but also expanding across borders, as Iliad in this case. ” (ANSA).