Britain approves $19 billion merger between Vodafone UK, Three mobile

Britain on Thursday approved the $19 billion merger between Vodafone UK and Hutchison’s Three UK to create the country’s biggest mobile operator and reduce the number of networks to three from four.

The Competition and Markets Authority had previously said the deal could push up customer prices, but it later accepted that a pledge by the two companies to invest in 5G networks and offer protections for retail and wholesale customers were enough to ease its concerns.