Vodafone Three merger: What does it mean for customers?

Dan Howdle • December 5th, 2024

And then there were three. It's been announced today that two of the UK's four mobile network providers – Vodafone and Three – are to going to merge, having received conditional approval from the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA). Between them, Vodafone and Three have around 27m customers. So what does it mean for them? Let's take a look.

What's happened?

Vodafone and Three are merging, creating a single, giant mobile network that combines all of the network infrastructure of both providers to create what will likely be the UK's most expansive 5G mobile network. The new name of these merged brands is yet to be announced, and certainly in the short term the two providers' 27m combined customers won't notice any changes.

In fact, the merger won't even be completed until some unspecified time in the first half of 2025, and even then things should be business as usual while the two companies figure out how to merge their brands. It's highly probable that the Three and Vodafone brands will continue as they are, in fact, just as BT and EE do despite being one company.

With mergers having taken place by the likes of BT and EE, and O2 and Virgin Media, it makes sense that other large companies are seeking to merge similarly. It also would have been strange if the CMA hadn't approved it, having waved through those other high-profile mergers in recent years without issue.

Will the merger affect my Three or Vodafone contract?

No existing contract is likely to change in any way once the merger happens. Vodafone customers will remain Vodafone customers and Three customers will remain Three customers. Much further down the line, when the two companies are fully integrated, the new conjoined company may well make substantial alterations to the products and services it offers, but again it's highly unlikely that anyone with an existing contract at that time will see anything change.

That means you won't need to worry about switching SIMs, phones or anything else. What will happen though, is that many people will see changes to their signal strength and coverage as the newly merged provider doubles its count of masts and deactivates some that occupy the same geographical area.

There will be updates in due course as to the specifics of how the new provider will operate, but at this stage, only the merger itself has been confirmed.

What will improve for customers?

Better 5G. That's it in a nutshell. When Three and Vodafone merge, both networks will immediately double their masts and other network infrastructure. Of course, there will be a lot of masts being deactivate too where their signal ranges extend across the same area. We won't know how that all shakes out until it happens, but along with the combined £11 billion investment in 5G promised by the newly merged company will improve speeds and expand coverage even further.

The additional masts and investment also promise improved signal in the more rural parts of Britain in some areas.

Another future benefit we anticipate is the newly merged entity starting to offer combined broadband and mobile bundles. Although Virgin O2 currently offers a SIM option in its Volt bundles, no one is really pushing this sort of bundle, and we reckon it's definitely something that'll be considered once the two companies become one.

What about prices?

A decrease in competition can sometimes lead to higher pricing because there are fewer competitors to keep them honest. However, even with just three network providers rather than four, and a vast amount of regular MVNO providers that piggyback these networks, the UK is still leagues ahead of many of its UK neighbours in terms of healthy competition in the mobile marketplace.

Added to that is the level of regulatory oversight – strict rules on what merged companies like this can and can't do – means that gouging and price fixing are simply impossible even if the company weren't already having to compete with dozens of other providers.

Vodafone and Three have argued that this merger will cut down the cost of running their companies by sharing their resources and that could 'potentially' lead to lower pricing. Our take? Not a chance. If they're saving money, they'll profit and reinvest. That's just business.

What we think

From a coverage point of view, 5G coverage especially is likely to benefit greatly from the two companies operating as one, and that's going to be better for you the customer. 5G is still patchy in the UK, but it would be a lot less patchy if all providers lent each other their masts and infrastructure. This is one way of doing that.

Existing customers won't see any changes happening to their contracts, and any change in offering from the provider is likely to happen much further down the line and only to the range and type of new deals made available.

Overall, we're pretty upbeat about it and it will be interesting to see exactly the shape and nature of the nitty gritty detail of how things will change as we get closer to fully sealing the deal.