TalkTalk has launched a scathing attack on a report, released yesterday and entitled ‘An analysis of the benefits to UK consumers, businesses and citizens from BT’s acquisition of EE’, by supporting BT‘s acquisition of EE.

The telecoms provider denied the report’s findings and claimed that the acquisition will lead to reduced competition and less innovation, as well as higher prices for consumers.

The report’s author Robert Kenny claims that there will be several major benefits from the deal. Bundling services, where currently the UK lags, will apparently meet demand for traffic and create efficiencies.

He also argues that it will allow quicker convergence between fixed and mobile networks, while increasing innovation. The combined partners will also apparently be able to offer more sophisticated solutions and advance the Internet of Things.

The report reads: ‘I conclude the merger has the potential to generate a wide array of customer benefits driven by enhanced investment, innovation, efficiency and competition for converged services. Notwithstanding the merger, the UK would continue to be a well contested market by comparison to its European peers, with some of the most pro-competitive market interventions globally.’

However, a TalkTalk spokesperson said: "It is unsurprising that BT and EE claim that their merger would deliver benefits for consumers, but the evidence of other markets and other industries does not support this."

"Quite simply, consolidation leads to reduced competition and a reduced incentive to innovate and, crucially, higher prices – as demonstrated just last month by mobile prices rises in Ireland."

A claim in the report that "the opinions offered…are purely those of the author" and "do not necessarily represent the views of BT" was also called into question. Responding to a journalist’s question at a press conference to launch the report, according to the Daily Mail, Kenny admitted that he had only been paid to look at the benefits of the acquisition.

Earlier this month BT CEO Gavin Patterson commented that the UK was one of the only markets in the world where no operator had both fixed and wireless assets.

"The UK was the outlier in terms of market structure. All we’re doing is catching up with the rest of the world."