Commerce Commission chairman Dr Mark Berry said in a statement, “In reaching its decision, the Commission considered that the merged entity would continue to face competition from Telecom, as well as Orcon, Slingshot and other smaller businesses in providing fixed line voice and broadband services to residential and small business customers”.

“The Commission did not find any significant business overlap between Vodafone and TelstraClear in the provision of either mobile phone services or fixed line services to large businesses.

The path to approval was cleared by Vodafone not seeking to acquire all of TelstraClear’s spectrum, which falls in the 4G-friendly 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands.

Ah, so not all spectrum obtained in the deal.