THE Australian mobile market is about to get a huge new player....

THE Australian mobile market is about to get a huge new player.
Vodafone and TPG have announced their plan to team up and take on the telco heavyweights of Telstra and Optus.
This morning the two companies — TPG and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) — said they had agreed to terms on a “merger of equals”.
TPG shareholders will get 49.9 per cent of the new group and Vodafone Hutchison shareholders will get the remaining 50.1 per cent.
Such a deal has been speculated about for some time. Now that it’s finally about to take place, consumers will be provided with a new look alternative to Telstra and Optus.
“The Merger will create a more effective challenger to Telstra and Optus, with an integrated fixed and mobile offering and a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $15 billion,” the companies said in a joint statement.
The deal is all about combining assets to take on the big guys. Vodafone has a sizeable mobile network with a mobile customer base of approximately 6 million subscribers as of June 2018.
Meanwhile TPG — which also owns iiNet and Internode — has extensive fibre networks and high density cells in metropolitan areas that will significantly boost Vodafone’s efforts to rollout 5G mobile technology.
“The combination of these assets will maximise the opportunities presented by convergence and best position the combined company to invest in 5G technologies that will deliver faster services and offer more competitive value propositions to more Australian customers,” the statement said.

OXY