28th Annual Communications and Competition Conference

24 Apr - 25 Apr 2017

Session information

Merger trends in the communications sector

Committee(s)

Antitrust Section (Lead)
Communications Law Committee (Lead)

Description

The telecoms sector has been characterised by increasing consolidation in recent years and it’s important to anticipate the future trends. Consolidation is also presenting increasing challenges for competition and regulatory authorities. In pure mobile, most recently, the outright prohibition of Three UK/O2 in the UK and the abandonment of TeliaSonera/Telenor in Denmark was followed by the clearance of Hutchison/Vimplecom in Italy, subject to remedies. At the same time, recent deals such as BASE/ Liberty in Belgium and Jazztel/Orange in Spain involving fixed/ mobile integration have presented different substantive and, for the moment, less concerning issues. In this session we will discuss the current and future consolidation trends in the telecoms industry. We shall then consider the antitrust and regulatory issues raised by such mergers and acquisitions. In particular, we will examine: • The current state of consolidation in telecoms – where are we now and where are we going? • How cable and broadband consolidation affects telecoms mergers • The emerging framework for assessing conglomerate telecoms mergers • How to steer a four to three mobile merger through to clearances: a ‘live’ experience

Session / Workshop Chair(s)

Samantha Mobley Baker McKenzie, London, England; Secretary, Antitrust Section
Vittorio Noseda ADVANT Nctm, Milan, Italy; Conference Coordinator, Communications Law Committee

Speakers

Antonio Bavasso
Stefano Quintarelli Italian Parliament & Italian Digital Agency, Rome, Italy