Australia’s competition regulator ruled out opposing a proposed acquisition of much of TPG Telecom’s fixed infrastructure assets by Vocus Group after finding the deal was unlikely to result in a reduction in competition across the country’s fibre and fixed-line markets.

Philip Williams, a commissioner with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), explained Vocus would continue to face strong competitors including Telstra, Optus, Aussie Broadband, Superloop and managed service providers in supplying government, large enterprise and SME customers

Williams added the ACCC’s investigation found Vocus concentrates on supplying large enterprise and government customers, while TPG Telecom focuses on the SME market.

The ACCC considered how closely Vocus and TPG Telecom compete in the supply of data connectivity services to large enterprise and government customers.

It also looked at the impact of the deal on the delivery of fixed-line voice, NBN wholesale aggregation, and data centre, cloud and security services.

The AUD5.3 billion ($3.5 billion) deal includes TPG Telecom’s fibre network infrastructure; enterprise, government and wholesale fixed customer base; IT assets; international submarine cables; and Vision Network’s wholesale residential broadband business.