Article in Jersey Evening Post Monday 12 August 2024

By Rod McLoughlin

Competition will now be ‘more difficult’, claims telecoms provider

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority “rolled over” and let the merger of Sure and Airtel-Vodaphone happen, a director of a rival telecommunications company has complained.

Graeme Marett, of Clear Mobitel (Jersey) Ltd – which unsuccessfully opposed the merger in submissions to the JCRA and was seeking itself to pursue negotiations with Airtel – said that “light touch” conditions imposed by the regulator were not in the interests of wider competition. “The decision makes it more difficult for others to get into the market,” Mr Marett said, adding that they believed the regulator had accepted “whatever Sure wanted to offer”.

“They just rolled over and let it happen,” he said.

Sure’s acquisition of Airtel-Vodafone was last week approved by the JCRA – the deal is yet to receive the go-ahead in Guernsey. Sure has said that £48 million will be invested in the “very best” 5G mobile network as part of the deal. As part of conditions to ensure a competitive market, the Channel Islands Coop will enter the market as a mobile virtual network operator, using Sure’s network infrastructure. Current consumer prices will also be protected for 36 months.

Clear Mobitel have planning permission for three sites in St Helier for what Mr Marett said the company hoped would be the start of installation and roll-out of their 5G fixed wireless access and 5G cell network, which the company had planned to offer in 2022.

However, the JCRA’s decision has cast doubt over the tangibility of those plans. The JCRA said: “Despite having held spectrum in the 5G band for several years, the authority notes that Clear Mobitel has not indicated any substantiated plans to launch 5G services in Jersey. The authority, therefore, does not find it likely that Clear Mobitel would enter the market in a sufficiently timely manner or to act as a sufficient potential competitive constraint on the merging parties and JT, post-transaction, to counteract any anticompetitive effects arising from the proposed transaction.”

Clear Mobitel had argued that the deal was bad for competition locally, challenging claims that the recent deal struck between Sure and the Coop – that would see the Coop operate a mobile virtual network under agreement with Sure – would offer real competition.

They argued instead that they should be given the opportunity to pursue their own negotiations with Airtel.

However, the JCRA said that this was “a commercial matter” falling outside their remit.

Earlier this week, Clear Mobitel Ltd – an associate company of Clear Mobitel (Jersey) and Clear Mobitel (Guernsey) – announced that they were investing US$200 million in Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector. Harpal Mann, the UK-registered company’s chief executive, also chief executive of Clear Mobitel (Jersey) Ltd, said: “I am happy that we have managed to engage in some fruitful discussions with the Zimbabwe government. I am impressed by the country’s business environment and prepared to invest US$200 million because of the open-for-business policy in Zimbabwe,” he said.