In an update on its website, the ACCC said the date was uncertain as it was still receiving information from the two companies. A new provisional date would be confirmed once all information had come to hand and been assessed, it added.
In January, the ACCC had said it would be extending the date for a final decision from 28 March to 11 April.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia and TPG Telecom announced a merger of equals on 30 August 2018, with the scrip deal creating a company with an enterprise value of about $15 billion.
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“Our preliminary view is that TPG is currently on track to become the fourth mobile network operator in Australia, and as such it’s likely to be an aggressive competitor,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said at the time.
“We therefore have preliminary concerns that removing TPG as a new independent competitor with its own network, in what is a concentrated market for mobile services, would be likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition.
"If TPG remains separate from Vodafone, it appears likely to need to continue to adopt an aggressive pricing strategy, offering cheap mobile plans with large data allowances.”
The ACCC also said that it would also look at the longer-term impact of the proposed merger, given that there was likely to be increased take-up of mobile broadband services rather than fixed home broadband services in future, especially after 5G was rolled out.
Following that, TPG announced in January that it was cancelling the rollout of its mobile network due to the Australian Government's ban on the use of equipment from Chinese telecommunication equipment vendor Huawei Technologies.
And recently, TPG said it would be making a write-down of $76 million with regards to its mobile network assets due to the cancellation of the rollout.
