Vodafone and Three merge — will it actually make your mobile signal better?

4 June 2025, 14:23

By Andy Aitken

Let’s be honest: most people aren’t celebrating when they hear two big mobile networks have merged.

They’re likely thinking the same thing: ‘My signal already sucks, prices keep going up, and customer service is a nightmare. How is less competition going to fix that?’

It’s a fair question. But here’s the truth: this merger could be the best thing to happen to UK mobile in years.

Right now, mobile signal across the UK is abysmal. Dropped calls, patchy 5G and slow data, even in major cities. It’s not your phone — it’s an entire, broken system.

Vodafone and Three have been stuck playing catch-up. On their own, neither had the scale to properly compete with EE or Virgin Media O2. That left us with two dominant players and two laggards, without incentive for any to raise the bar.

This merger changes that. Suddenly, we’ve got three real contenders. With more muscle and more money, VodafoneThree can invest in its network, challenge the big two, and start dragging the UK’s mobile infrastructure out of the dark ages.

And we need that. Because right now, we’re falling behind globally.

5G in the UK has been a flop. We rank 22nd out of 25 European countries for 5G. Why? Because there’s just not enough 5G infrastructure yet, and building it is a slow, expensive, bureaucratic nightmare.

To give you an idea of how messy the rollout has been from the start — the government banned Huawei 5G equipment in 2020, even though a lot of it was already installed. That meant they had to remove and replace it, wasting time and money.

China can put up a 50-metre 5G mast in days, yet red tape in the UK makes it incredibly difficult for us to attempt anything similar. So networks build where the money is: cities. But even there, coverage is poor.

Try streaming a video at rush hour in Waterloo Station – it might work, but it probably won’t. The further you travel, the worse it gets. One beach in Cornwall may have signal on one network, while another has none, and a third has signal on a completely different network. It’s broken. And it’s not good enough.

This merger won’t fix everything, but it’s a start. And if we want real, lasting change, it’s time to think bigger.

What if mobile infrastructure was treated like rail or energy: as a national asset for networks to share and raise the bar, rather than a patchwork of private investments chasing short-term profits? It’s a bold move, but it might be the only way to bring UK telecoms up to speed. Literally.

Currently, the system works for some Private Equity companies and some city centres, but not for the people who actually use it.

VodafoneThree could be a reset. A chance to build something better. But long-term, we need a system that works for everyone.

________________

Andy Aitken is co-founder and CEO of Honest Mobile.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk