Magic Numbers and Merger Control in the Telecommunications Sector

“There is no magic number,” stated the European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in early October of this year. The statement followed the withdrawal of the merger planned by Telenor and TeliaSonera, after the European Commission objected, which would have merged the second and third largest Danish mobile operators and reduced the number of mobile network operators (“MNOs”) to three. It was also a response to the calls for consolidation in the mobile telecom sector and the argument that markets with four mobile operators could not keep up with investments. While four is a must for some regulators, “three is the magic number,” according to the industry