Australia’s competition watchdog announced it again postponed making a decision on the proposed merger of Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) and TPG Telecom due to delays in receiving information from them.

In a statement, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said a previous provisional date of 28 March had already been moved to 11 April, and it will confirm the new date when the required information is received.

The regulator in December 2018 pushed back the deadline for a decision by three months to end-March, airing concerns the proposed AUD15 billion ($10.7 billion) merger would reduce competition in the country’s mobile and broadband market.

TPG Telecom is building a mobile network across Australia after acquiring spectrum in December 2017.

VHA and the fixed-line operator announced their plan to merge in late August 2018. The deal requires the approval of both the ACCC and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Inaki Berroeta, head of VHA, is expected to serve as CEO of the merged company, while TPG Telecom chairman and CEO David Teoh is tipped to become chair.

VHA held a 19 per cent share of Australia’s connections (excluding cellular IoT) at end-December, trailing market leader Telstra (50 per cent) and Singtel-owned Optus (31 per cent), data from GSMA Intelligence showed.