(Removes extraneous RIC code)
By Foo Yun Chee and Kate Holton
BRUSSELS/LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Vodafone is set to gainunconditional EU approval for its 7.2-billion-euro ($9.79billion) bid for Spain's largest cable operator Ono asregulators do not have competition concerns, three peoplefamiliar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The deal is part of a wave of consolidation in the telecomsindustry and is the British firm's third acquisition of aEuropean fixed-broadband asset in two years.
Telecoms providers say more mergers are necessary to offsetfalling revenues and to secure the funds to upgradeinfrastructure for fast-speed broadband.
Buying Ono will enable Vodafone to better compete withSpanish market leader Telefonica. Vodafone's 25 percentshare of the Spanish mobile market is expected to increase byalmost two percentage points after the deal.
The people said the European Commission has not demandedconcessions from Vodafone, the world's second-largest mobileoperator.
"There are no issues, the deal will be cleared by theEuropean Commission without conditions," said one of the people,who declined to be named because the Commission's decision isnot public yet. The other two sources said they have the sameexpectations.
A Commission official and Vodafone declined to comment. TheEU antitrust watchdog has set a July 2 deadline for itsdecision. ($1 = 0.7355 Euros) (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Kate Holton; editing by BarbaraLewis and Louise Heavens)
Vodafone (VOD)
