The relentless charm offensive pursued by Vodafone and Three in support of their proposed merger appears to have fallen on deaf ears, at least as far as the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is concerned. In its provisional view of the marriage made in heaven/hell (delete where applicable), the CMA pulls no punches, concluding after an in-depth investigation that the merger could lead to tens of millions of mobile customers having to pay more for their service as well as negatively impacting wholesale customers such as Lyca Mobile, Sky Mobile and Lebara – brands that tend to target those with less money to spare. The CMA also suspects that the merged firm would not necessarily be incentivized to follow through with its much trumpeted investment program once the deal goes through.

Of course, Vodafone and Three aren't impressed, clinging to their mantra that the merger is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform UK digital infrastructure," indeed, one that will "fix the country's dysfunctional mobile market characteristics, unleashing more competition and investment."  Guys, they're trying to save Britain here!

A final decision isn't due from the CMA until December 7. Expect the merciless lobbying to continue apace. (See Vodafone-Three merger to leave Brits worse off, says new research.)

The Financial Times has reported that Nokia is looking for a new CEO to replace Pekka Lundmark, saying that the Finnish vendor has "approached candidates" in what is an "ongoing" search. Nokia, however, is having none of it, saying in an emailed statement: "The Board fully supports President and CEO Pekka Lundmark and is not undergoing a process to replace him. It is a core responsibility for every Board to systematically and continuously assess and discuss the leadership team's long-term succession plan through a comprehensive approach that covers internal and external candidates … For this work we also use the help of professional advisors. Our CEO and Chair are fully aware and involved in this process." (See Nokia CEO bids to revive loss-making mobile unit amid sale rumors.)

UK converged operator Virgin Media O2 has agreed the sale of a 16.67% minority stake in Cornerstone, its mobile tower joint venture, to GLIL Infrastructure, a UK-based investment fund. VMO2 will receive approximately £360 million (US$472 million) and will retain a 33.33% stake in Cornerstone upon completion of the deal. The Cornerstone network, which comprises around 20,000 sites, is used by both VMO2 and Vodafone UK. According to VMO2's parent company, Liberty Global, Cornerstone will remain a "critical supplier" to VMO2 and the deal will not affect the existing network-sharing agreement between Vodafone UK, which is known as Project Beacon.

Ericsson has unveiled what it calls its Enterprise 5G portfolio, a software mash-up of private 5G and neutral-host offerings targeted at what the Swedish vendor mysteriously calls "both carpeted and industrial enterprises."

The latest update by French communications regulator Arcep reveals that out of the 44.4 million listed premises in metropolitan France, 39.3 million have been passed for fiber-to-the-home broadband as of June 30, 2024. During the second quarter of 2024, 655,000 additional premises were passed, representing a slowdown of 25% on the same period a year earlier. The number of FTTH subscriptions reached 23 million during the quarter, a figure that represents seven out of ten Internet subscriptions.

The UK government has been reviewing updated evidence on market concentration risks in telecom suppy chains, reaching the conclusion that it needs to renew efforts to create conditions that might attract one or more additional "scale vendors" into the UK 5G radio access network (RAN) market. The government is also being encouraged to continue to drive the development and deployment of open RAN offerings.

BT is collaborating with Equinix and Toshiba on "quantum-secure" networks between data centers, providing secure connectivity at two Equinix facilities, one in London's Canary Wharf and the other in the town of Slough, about 20 miles west of the capital. Customers using these data centers will be able to connect to BT and Toshiba's secure metro network and trial the transmission of data protected by quantum key distribution (QKD) technology.