One NZ Seeks Clearance To Acquire Dense Air

The Commerce Commission has received an application from One New Zealand Group Limited seeking clearance to acquire 100% of the shares in Dense Air New Zealand Limited from Dense Air Limited and SoftBank Corp.

One NZ is one of New Zealand’s largest telecommunications companies, offering fixed broadband and mobile to residential and business customers.

Dense Air owns the management rights to 2 x 35MHz in the 2600MHz radio spectrum band but does not currently use the spectrum. Spectrum in this band is currently used by One NZ and Spark to provide 4G mobile and 4G fixed wireless access broadband services. One NZ expects it to be used to provide 5G mobile services in the future.

A public version of the clearance application will be available on the Commission’s case register in the future. In the interim, parties wanting a copy of the public version of the application should e-mail mergers@comcom.govt.nz.

Background

Radio spectrum is a scarce and critical input used in mobile telecommunications networks. Mobile network operators like One NZ acquire and hold long-term management rights to radio spectrum, while some other parties access spectrum through licences. The type and amount of spectrum held by mobile network operators affects the way in which they deploy their networks, and may also affect the capacity and services they can offer to retail and wholesale customers. Given this, differences in spectrum holdings may affect competition between mobile network operators.

We will give clearance to a proposed merger if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

Further information explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on our website.

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