OFT to investigate Macquarie's Airwave deal

The Office of Fair Trading has opened an investigation into whether Macquarie Bank's £1.9bn acquisition of Airwave, the UK's emergency services communications network, would damage competition in the telecoms sector.

The Australian bank Macquarie has been active in bidding for UK infrastructure assets over the past year and tried to buy the London Stock Exchange last year. As well as purchasing Airwave, the bank recently funded the £2.5bn merger of Arqiva and National Grid Wireless, the UK's two broadcast and mobile phone masts businesses. Airwave provides secure mobile communications services for the UK's emergency services.

Macquarie plans to integrate the two transmissions businesses with Arqiva's masts, giving the bank a monopoly in transmission masts used by broadcasters and radio stations, and a significant position in masts used to connect mobile telecoms calls. Mobile network owners like Vodafone and Orange also operate masts businesses but have started to share towers to cut costs.

O2, the mobile phone company owned by Spain's Telefonica, sold Airwave to Macquarie last month.