Paul Williams talks to Martin Chambers from Case Study Crew

It’s a really hot topic at the moment in UK Telecoms is the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three.

The Competition and Markets Authority are looking to make a decision on this come the 7th of December which is not too far away and there’s potential huge implications here for the UK telecoms market.

It will see four operators become effectively three.

One of the things we seek to do for the people we partner with is to minimise their risk.

And at the moment, there is a huge risk sat on the horizon in December when a final decision is made.

And it’s not just a case of whether you have two sites on your own title, your own property, your own land, it’s whether you’ve got one particular operator and maybe next door somebody else has got the other operator.

And so this patchwork of consolidation is yet to be confirmed.

I’m sure there will be some decommissions that happen.

It may well be that there are some new sites built and that brings with it its own challenges in regards to where those new sites are going to be and the implications of how those sites are going to be arrived at from a legal agreement whether it be imposed or a consensual one.

From the landlord’s perspective, they do need to consider whether or not there is longevity in regards to the site that they own and they may want to start looking at whether or not seeking a capitalised payment for that, which is something we can potentially offer is a route they may wish to explore and transfer that risk from them to us.