BRUSSELS, June 15 - European Union antitrust regulators willrule by July 19 whether to clear a plan by British mobileoperator Vodafone and U.S. cable company Liberty Global to merge their Dutch operations.
The companies sought approval from the European Commissionon Tuesday, according to a filing on the EU competitionauthority website.
The Commission can either approve the deal with or withoutconditions in the preliminary phase or open a full-scaleinvestigation if it has serious concerns the tie-up may lead tohigher consumer bills.
The combined company would be the second largest telecomsprovider in the Netherlands after former incumbent KPN.The industry has seen a wave of consolidation in recent years ascompanies seek scale in order to invest in costly fast-speednetwork infrastructure. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Adrian Croft)
Vodafone (VOD)
