“Fewer players in an essential market like telecoms is rarely a good thing for consumers and competition” – Which? response to the Three and O2 merger

“With two major mobile network providers looking to merge, this would be a significant change to the market and one that will need careful consideration by the competition authorities to ensure that consumers are protected from higher prices or poorer service. Fewer players in an essential market like telecoms is rarely a good thing for consumers and competition, and both O2 and Three already have work to do to improve their customer satisfaction ratings.”

Background

1. In the latest Which? mobile phone network satisfaction survey (May 2014) Three came sixth out of the 10 network providers we looked, scoring low on customer satisfaction for both contract deals (58%) and pay-as-you-go deals (59%).
2. O2 was ranked fourth out of 10 with a customer score of 63% for both contract and pay-as-you-go deals.