The highly anticipated merger between Virgin Media and O2 is still being finalized this year, the former's parent company has said. Mike Fries, chief executive of Liberty Global, which owns Virgin Media, assured investors that the merger, which would unite two of the UK's largest network companies, is still expected to go through in mid-2021. it would create what Fries called a 'fixed-mobile' champion for millions of users across the UK, but has yet to gain approval from the UK's Commissions and Markets Commission (CMA). “2020 has been a transformational year as we announced highly profitable deals in Switzerland and the UK, creating fixed and mobile champions in two of our key markets,” Fries told investors as part of the company's annual financial results. 2020 from Liberty Global. “We are making very positive progress with the UK regulator on the joint venture between Virgin Media and Telefónica O2, and continue to anticipate a mid-21 close. The details of the merger are still being reviewed by the CMA, having raised concerns with earlier this year that prices could rise due to less competition in the UK market. Specifically, MAC is concerned about the impact of the combined entity on the wholesale market. The O2 mobile network is used to power services provided by various Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), including Sky Mobile. Meanwhile, Virgin Media is the second largest provider of backhaul services for mobile operators after Openreach. The fear is that the enlarged entity will be tempted to reject or reduce the quality of service provided to its competitors, or increase prices, to protect its own interests. The combination of O2's mobile infrastructure and Virgin Media's cable network would immediately create one of the largest telecommunications organizations in Europe, powering the communications of almost 40 million subscribers. The consolidation would also result in savings of €6.2 billion and provide the scale and capacity to compete with BT and Vodafone on converged network services. Parent companies Liberty Global and Telefónica have committed to creating 4.000 jobs and 1.000 apprenticeships if they receive regulatory approval and have pledged to increase the combined company's gigabit broadband footprint by an additional million installations, raising the total figure to 16 million, within 12 months of the merger. There are also promises to add an additional seven million homes to "gigabit networks" and cover more than 100 cities by the end of 2021. Via Mobile News