The tie-up of Liberty Global and Telefonica’s UK businesses risks harming Britain’s telecom market, Vodafone Group and Comcast’s Sky claimed in submissions to the nation’s antitrust regulator.
Sky Mobile currently resells wireless services using Telefonica’s O2 network. If Liberty-owned cable operator Virgin Media successfully merges with O2, that relationship could sour, Sky stated.
“The merged entity will have the ability to degrade Sky’s mobile service,” Sky stated in a heavily redacted response to Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority published Wednesday, February 24. Virgin-O2’s motivation to wholesale wireless access to Sky on favorable terms will “materially reduce” as the merged company drives sales to its own integrated businesses, it stated.
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