Vodafone and Three agree merger to form UK’s largest mobile operator

Coming together of firms’ British telecoms networks may face scrutiny from regulators

Vodafone and the owner of Three have agreed a deal to merge their British telecoms networks in a move that will create the UK’s largest mobile operator.

The two companies are the UK’s third- and fourth-biggest mobile operators respectively. The newly combined company will, if the merger is completed, have more than 27 million subscribers, leapfrogging rivals EE, owned by BT, and Virgin Media O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica and the US company Liberty Global.