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LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Vodafone and Hutchison's Three UK will commit to low tariffs on their value brand for two years and give better access to wholesale operators, making new pledges to the regulator to try to get approval for their $19 billion merger.
Britain's antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority $(CMA)$, is due to make its final decision on the tie-up between the two mobile operators by Dec. 7.
The companies said they would maintain prices on the SMARTY value brand at 10 pounds or below, as well as keep social tariffs and exclude vulnerable customers from mid-contract price rises, according to a submission to the CMA published on Monday.
They said they were also prepared to commit to offer access to their joint network on pre-agreed terms to third-party operators with 2.5 million or fewer customers.
The CMA said earlier this month that the deal, which reduces the number of networks from four to three, could push up prices for customers.
But they signalled it could received clearance if the two parties could guarantee it would be positive for consumers, network quality and wholesale competitors like Sky Mobile.
The merger will create a market leading competitor to BT's EE and Virgin Media O2 .
Vodafone and Three UK said they disagreed with CMA's view on consumer pricing, and pointed to their existing promises to invest 11 billion pounds in their joint network and sell some of their combined spectrum to VMO2.
However, they also offered the new pledges as part of a final push to get the deal cleared.
"We will continue to positively engage with them (the CMA) to resolve outstanding matters," they said in a statement.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and Sarah Young)
((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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