(Bloomberg) -- Vodafone Group Plc and CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s Three will sell a portion of their spectrum to Virgin Media O2 Ltd. if the companies’ merger is approved by UK competition authorities, the companies said Wednesday.

The £13 billion ($16.4 billion) Vodafone-Three merger, which would create the UK’s largest mobile operator, is undergoing a review by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Rivals have expressed concern that the combined allocation of spectrum, the range of electromagnetic waves that enable wireless technology, would reduce competition and deter investment. The proposed sale is an effort to allay those concerns. 

Selling the unspecified amount of spectrum would create a more equal balance between the major UK operators and allow more customers to benefit from the merged entity’s £11 billion network build-out plan over the next decade, Vodafone and VM02 said in a joint statement. 

VMO2, which is jointly owned by Liberty Global Plc and Telefonica SA, said in the statement the agreement “addresses the issues we have voiced.”

The merged company would leapfrog BT’s EE, which currently has the most spectrum in the UK. VMO2 has the least.

Vodafone and VMO2 also announced they have extended an existing network sharing agreement for more than a decade, bringing Three into the agreement if the merger is approved. 

The network sharing agreement and spectrum sale look “insufficient” to appease the CMA, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Erhan Gurses. “Regulatory approval of similar deals across Europe required typically structural remedies that encouraged a new entrant,” he added.

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