Britain’s competition watchdog said on Thursday a UK telecom tower deal between Spain’s Cellnex and Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison may raise “significant competition concerns” and risked higher mobile charges.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its investigation found that CK Hutchison should have sold its passive infrastructure assets, including towers and masts, to an alternative buyer rather than market leader Cellnex.
“CK Hutchison had a range of options to commercialise these assets and the deal with Cellnex was not the only option available to it to pursue its broader commercial objectives,” the regulator said in a statement.
The CMA said the sale could result in higher prices or lower quality services for mobile network operators, with a knock-on adverse impact for users of mobile networks across the UK.
Cellnex and CK Hutchison did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The regulator launched an inquiry into the proposed deal in May and referred it for an in-depth investigation in July.
Cellnex last year agreed to buy 24,600 telecom towers across Europe from CK Hutchison, which owns the Three mobile network in the UK, for 10 billion euros (US$11.31 billion).
(US$1 = 0.8844 euros)
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
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