Vodafone and Three Mobile could strike merger deal by end of year

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Vodafone and Three Mobile have sped up talks about a new deal to combine their operations, creating the biggest player in the phone industry. open image in gallery Vodafone and Three Mobile have sped up talks about a new deal to combine their operations The Hong-Kong based umbrella company has been looking to sell Three for some time. open image in gallery Three is currently part of the CK Hutchison group of companies Shares in Vodafone jumped after the report and were up 2 per cent at 103.16p by 0950 GMT on Monday, compared with a 0.8 per cent fall in the FTSE 100. Vodafone said: “As Ofcom has identified, some operators in the UK – Vodafone UK and Three UK – lack the necessary scale to earn their cost of capital.” It added: “The merged business would challenge the two already consolidated players for all UK customers and bring benefits through competitively priced access to a third reliable, high quality and secure 5G network throughout the UK.” As companies prepare to phase out their 3G network – Vodafone will do so in 2023 – 5G is being credited with potentially transformational abilities.