The Commerce Commission gave One New Zealand the green light to purchase Dense Air’s business in the country, giving the operator access to 2600MHz spectrum, which it will deploy to boost its 5G network.

One NZ CEO Jason Paris said the acquisition will “help to put a rocket under our network, turbo boosting the experience” for customers by delivering faster upload and download speeds.

In a statement, Commerce Commission chair John Small said it was satisfied the acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any domestic market. 

According to GSMA Intelligence, One NZ is the country’s second largest operator with 2.6 million connections. Spark leads the market with 2.8 million.

Small noted after the acquisition, One NZ would continue to face “significant competition” from other retail mobile and broadband providers, adding the deal won’t substantially affect the competitive effectiveness of number three operator 2degrees.

One NZ reached an agreement with Dense Air in November 2023 to acquire its local assets.