Honda and Nissan have announced plans to merge as the Japanese automakers struggle with competition from rival brands in the electric vehicle market. The two companies confirmed on Monday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding that would create the third largest car maker by sales, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors is also in talks with Honda and Nissan to join the integration, with a decision expected by the end of January. Based on the market capital of all three companies, a finalized merger could result in an entity worth more than 50 billion dollars. Honda will initially lead the management of the merged company according to Honda president, Toshihiro Mibe, with the aim to complete a formal merger agreement by June and finalize the deal by August 2026.

“Creation of new mobility value by bringing together the resources including knowledge, talents, and technologies that Honda and Nissan have been developing over the long years is essential to overcome challenging environmental shifts that the auto industry is facing,” Mibe said in a statement.

The proposed merger was initially teased last week, and aims to establish a joint holding company to tackle growing global competition from brands like Tesla and China’s BYD in the EV market. The deal would also help to rescue the struggling Nissan, which saw its net earnings in mid-2024 fall by more than 90 percent year over year, and announced plans in November to lay off thousands of workers.

“If realized, I believe that by uniting the strengths of both companies, we can deliver unparalleled value to customers worldwide who appreciate our respective brands,” said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida. “Together, we can create a unique way for them to enjoy cars that neither company could achieve alone.”

Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn told Bloomberg on Friday that the merger is a “desperate move” by Nissan, and that it’s “not a pragmatic deal because frankly, the synergies between the two companies are difficult to find.” The company has been in turmoil since Ghosn was arrested by Japanese authorities in 2018 over charges of financial misconduct.

X has substantially raised the price of its top-tier user subscription in multiple regions to help bolster the platform’s creator payouts. The increase for Premium Plus came into effect on December 21st according to X, raising prices in the US from $16 per month to $22, or from $168 to $229 for annual subscriptions.

Many European countries like France, Germany, and Spain are impacted by a similar increase, taking monthly prices from €16 to €21. Monthly subscribers in Canada (currently paying $20), Australia ($26) and the UK (£16) will also see pricing increased to $26, $35, and £17 respectively. The higher pricing is immediately applicable to new subscribers, with existing users grandfathered into their current rates until January 20th. X’s basic subscription tier remains unaffected.

The pricing changes for US subscribers are the highest increase introduced since Elon Musk purchased the social media platform in 2022. X gave several reasons to justify the price hike, citing that Premium Plus is now completely ad-free — which it described as a “significant enhancement” to the current user experience.

X also references changes made to the X revenue sharing program in October, saying that subscriptions “now more directly fuels” creator payouts to “reward content quality and engagement rather than ad views alone.” Premium Plus subscribers will additionally receive priority user support, access to additional features like X’s Radar trend monitoring tool, and higher limits on the platform’s Grok AI models.

Instagram is planning to introduce a generative AI editing feature next year that will allow users to “change nearly any aspect of your videos.” The tech is powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model according to a teaser posted by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and aims to provide creators with more tools to help transform their content and bring their ideas to life without extensive video editing or manipulation skills.

Mosseri says the feature can make adjustments using a “simple text prompt.” The announcement video includes previews of early research AI models that change Mosseri’s outfit, background environments, and even his overall appearance — in one scene transforming him into a felt puppet. Other changes are more subtle, such as adding new objects to the existing background or a gold chain around Mosseri’s neck without altering the rest of his clothing.

It’s an impressive preview. The inserted backgrounds and clothing don’t distort unnaturally when Mosseri rapidly moves his arms or face, but the snippets we get to see are barely a second long. The early previews of OpenAI’s Sora video model also looked extremely polished, however, and the results we’ve seen since it became available to the public haven’t lived up to those expectations. We won’t know how good Instagram’s AI video tools truly are by comparison until they launch.

Meta unveiled its Movie Gen AI video generator in October, which promises to “preserve human identity and motion” in the videos it creates or edits. The announcement was made months after similar models from competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Adobe’s Firefly Video model, the latter of which is already powering beta text-to-video editing tools inside Premiere Pro. Meta hasn’t announced when Movie Gen will be available but Instagram is the first platform that the company has confirmed will utilize the text-to-video model.

SpaceX’s satellite-to-cell Starlink service has hit a nationwide coverage milestone in New Zealand — albeit with a few limitations. One NZ says it’s the first telecommunications company globally to power a nationwide satellite text messaging service via Starlink. Starlink has also signed up partners in Canada, Australia, Japan, Peru, Switzerland, and Chile, partnering with T-Mobile in the US.

Only four phone models are currently supported: the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and OPPO Find X8 Pro. Eligibility is expected to expand to more devices next year. Most text messages can be sent and received within three minutes during the initial rollout, according One NZ, though that may increase to “10 minutes or longer” during the first few months.

“We continue to test the capabilities of One NZ Satellite TXT, and this is an initial service that will get better. For example, text messages will take longer to send but will get quicker over time,” One NZ’s Experience and Commercial Director Joe Goddard said. “We’re beginning with a small number of phones as part of the staggered rollout of the technology. And critically, from today customers can send and receive text messages only, but in the future, we expect voice calling and data to also be available.”

The One NZ Satellite TXT service will be free for existing customers on paid-monthly plans. One NZ hasn’t revealed if new customers or those on other contracts will be required to pay an additional fee to access satellite-to-cell coverage.

Starlink’s text-by-satellite service was previously piloted with T-Mobile customers in areas affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton in October. T-Mobile was granted FCC approval for the service in November, and is now signing up customers to test the US Starlink beta program “early next year.”

The European Union has published several recommendations for Apple to make iOS and iPadOS more interoperable with competitors following two separate DMA proceedings launched in September, sparking concerns about user privacy from the iPhone maker.

On Wednesday, the EU Commission submitted draft recommendations to Apple regarding changes that would make the iOS operating system more compatible with third-party devices like smartwatches, earbuds, and headsets. The Commission is also proposing measures to improve how Apple communicates with developers who make interoperability requests for iOS and iPadOS, including increased transparency around internal features and rejections.

The EU’s proposed iOS interoperability measures cover interactivity features like automatic audio switching, background activity like maintaining Bluetooth and network connections, and notifications — which could address long-standing complaints from iPhone users who are unable to send quick replies from connected Garmin watches, for example. The EU also proposes several measures to improve iOS data transfer interoperability across Airdrop, Airplay, media casting, Wi-Fi sharing, and close-range file transfers, alongside device configuration measures covering proximity-triggered pairing and automatic Wi-Fi connectivity.

Apple has raised concerns about the DMA’s interoperability mandates, as you’d expect. In a white paper published shortly after the EU’s announcement, Apple criticized “data-hungry companies” like Meta that have made numerous requests to access the iPhone maker’s software tools.

“Meta has made 15 requests (and counting) for potentially far-reaching access to Apple’s technology stack that, if granted as sought, would reduce the protections around personal data that our users have come to expect from their devices,” Apple said in the paper. “If Apple is forced to allow access to sensitive technologies that it has no ability to protect, the security risks would be substantial and virtually impossible to mitigate.”

Apple doesn’t specify which of the EU’s DMA proposals it takes issue with, generalizing them in their entirety as a risk to user privacy. Meta has hit back about being targeted in Apple’s complaint and says the iPhone maker is being anticompetitive.

“What Apple is actually saying is they don’t believe in interoperability,” an unnamed Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Every time Apple is called out for its anticompetitive behavior, they defend themselves on privacy grounds that have no basis in reality.”

The Commission is requesting feedback from companies seeking interoperability with Apple by January 9th, 2025. The interoperability recommendations proposed by the EU Commission are subject to change depending on submitted feedback. The final, legally-binding measures applying to Apple are expected to be finalized before March 2025. If Apple doesn’t comply then the EU may launch a formal investigation next year, and could be liable for fines up to 10 percent of its global annual sales.

Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is expanding its drone delivery service to DoorDash customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Starting today, 50 merchants from malls in Frisco and Fort Worth will be available for drone delivery through the DoorDash app, dropping meals and items to homes “in as little as 15 minutes,” according to Wing.

The drones can fly at up to 65mph and reach a cruising height of about 150 feet before stopping to hover and safely lower orders to the ground at their delivery destinations. DoorDash customers will need an “eligible address” in Dallas-Fort Worth for the drone delivery option to appear on the checkout page. Locals can check the Wing website to see if they qualify.

Image: DoorDash / Wing

Wing says the company has now completed more than 400,000 commercial deliveries worldwide following its first US pilot in 2019. The Alphabet drone service trialed similar DoorDash partnerships in Australia and Christiansburg, Virginia, though the latter was limited to delivering Wendy’s.

This isn’t the first service Wing has introduced to Dallas-Fort Worth, having previously teamed up with Walgreens to airdrop local deliveries. Walmart also operates its own drone delivery program in the area via partnerships with Wing and Zipline.

European smart device manufacturer Shelly is launching 11 automation devices that can connect to the home from over a mile away. Shelly says its new and updated Wave devices are built around the Z-Wave Long Range (Z-Wave LR) specification, and will be available in the US in the first half of 2025.

The benefits of Z-Wave LR are similar to those offered by Amazon’s Sidewalk IoT network in that both can extend connectivity to devices beyond your home Wi-Fi network, without the need for expensive LTE data.

Z-Wave LR was announced back in 2020, but products that actually use it are only just starting to hit the market. The wireless protocol touts several features that are beneficial for large homes and commercial environments, such as eradicating the need for a mesh network with multiple signal repeaters. Instead, Z-Wave LR devices operate on a star network topology, which connects directly to devices via a central gateway hub.

Z-Wave LR has a maximum line-of-sight wireless range of 1.5 miles when operating at full power with support for up to 4,000 devices on a single network. Supported devices also automatically adjust the radio output power, providing up to 10 years of battery life on a single coin-cell battery.

The upgraded Shelly Wave products include a smart plug, a humidity and temperature sensor, a door/window sensor, a motion detector, a remote controller for motorized blinds, and a range of lighting dimmers and smart switches. Three of the devices are battery-powered. Shelly hasn’t revealed the price of these new products yet.

Z-Wave LR is backward compatible with older Z-Wave products and networks, but a Z-Wave LR-supported hub (built on the Z-Wave 700 or 800 series platform) is required to take advantage of the extended range benefits.

Authorities in the US are considering a ban on TP-Link internet routers over national security concerns due to their repeated links to Chinese cyberattacks. Investigators at the Commerce, Defense, and Justice departments have all launched probes into the company, according to the Wall Street Journal, with TP-Link reportedly being subpoenaed by an office of the Commerce Department.

The WSJ reports that US authorities may ban the sale of TP-Link routers within the country next year. Action taken against TP-Link would likely fall to the incoming Trump administration.

TP-Link holds roughly 65 percent of the US router market for homes and small businesses, and its internet communications products are used by the Defense Department and other federal government agencies. The company’s market dominance is at least partly driven by the extreme low cost of its routers. The US Justice Department is investigating whether TP-Link sells products for less than they cost to produce in violation of a law that prohibits attempts at monopolies, according to the WSJ.

The WSJ’s sources also say that TP-Link often fails to address security flaws that are routinely flagged in routers shipped to customers. In October, Microsoft disclosed a network of compromised network devices mostly manufactured by TP-Link that are regularly targeted by a Chinese government-linked hacking campaign.

An unnamed spokeswoman for TP-Link’s California-based business unit told the WSJ that the company assesses potential security risks and takes action to resolve known vulnerabilities. “We welcome any opportunities to engage with the US government to demonstrate that our security practices are fully in line with industry security standards, and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the US market, US consumers, and addressing US national security risks.”

The Delta gaming emulator is now providing a link to sign up for Patreon-exclusive membership perks directly within the iOS app in Apple’s US App Store. Developer Riley Testut is heavily encouraging users to click that external link by tripling the price you’d otherwise pay to Apple for In-App Purchase versions of those same Patreon tiers. Testut calls it the “do not buy sale.”

The update both embraces and protests the External Purchase Link Entitlement that Apple introduced in January, which allows developers to link to outside payment platforms in exchange for giving Apple a slightly reduced 27 percent cut of sales. The App Store policy change was made following rulings in the Epic vs Apple lawsuit that found Apple had acted anticompetitively by preventing developers from telling users about payment methods that bypassed its own payment system.

Image: Delta

Testut says Delta is likely the first app to use the entitlement. The $3, $5, and $10 monthly memberships on Patreon — which provide additional benefits like iPad and SEGA Genesis support, and private Discord access depending on the subscription tier — are listed in the iOS app at $10, $15, and $30, respectively.

“We really don’t want people to use in-app purchase,” Testut told The Verge. “We’ve been using Patreon for years, and it allows us to do things Apple’s IAP system can’t — such as issuing refunds and handling customer support — making it much more convenient for creators like us.”

Google Home is testing a new feature that will allow friends and family members to help manage smart devices around your home. Two access levels are available: “Admin” which provides full control over account and device permissions, and “Member” for people who require more limited access.

Google says that Admin access is for “trusted partners or people who co-manage the home with you.” Admins can add, remove, and manage users, add and remove devices, and link subscriptions to the home account. Members can manage basic device controls like viewing live security camera feeds, and adjusting personal settings like voice and face match assistant features.

Two further permission tiers are available for Members: “Settings” to fully control devices and home-wide settings like automation and Nest Wifi device network features; and “Activity” to authorize access to device and home-wide history for things like cameras, locks, and sensors.

The customizable Member access was first announced in November alongside the Google Home extension for Gemini. Only users who are enrolled in the Google Home public preview can send invitations to the new access levels.

Participants can add someone as an Admin or a Member by opening the Google Home app settings, tapping “Household and access,” and selecting the plus icon to invite a new home member. Those you invite don’t need to be enrolled in public preview themselves, but will need to be running the latest version of the Google Home app.

The first version of OpenAI’s Sora can generate video of just about anything you throw at it — superheroes, cityscapes, animated puppies. It’s an impressive first step for the AI video generator. But the actual results are far from satisfactory, with many videos so heavily plagued with oddities and inconsistencies that it’s hard to imagine anyone finding much use for them.

Sora was released on Monday after almost a year of teasers heralding its capabilities. There are a few hurdles before you get to the video generation features, though. For one, account creation was closed within hours of launching due to the overwhelming demand. Those who did manage to sign up will find that its features also require a subscription to unlock: a $20 monthly “Plus” membership will let you generate videos at 480p or 720p, capped at either five or 10 seconds in length depending on the resolution. To unlock everything, including 1080p quality and 20-second-long videos, you need to cough up $200 a month for the “Pro” Sora subscription.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Voicemod has released a hardware solution that enables its popular soundboard and voice-changing desktop software to work on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles. The Voicemod Key dongle is now available in the US after initially being teased in July, with Voicemod planning to launch it in additional countries “soon.”

Universal voice changers have previously been limited to desktop PCs and Macs, with software limitations preventing Voicemod from building an app for consoles. The Voicemod Key serves as a workaround — it sports a USB-C connection that plugs into a tablet or smartphone (including older iPhones thanks to an included lightning adapter), and two audio jacks that connect to your console and a wired gaming headset. The Voicemod mobile app can then be used to access the platform’s soundboard and real-time voice-changing features in console chats.

The Voicemod Key is supported on iOS 16 and Android 8.1 or higher. Availability is restricted to paid Voicemod subscribers, and the Key price will depend on your...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google has announced an experimental AI-powered code agent called “Jules” that can automatically fix coding errors for developers. Jules was introduced today alongside Gemini 2.0, and uses the updated Google AI model to create multi-step plans to address issues, modify multiple files, and prepare pull requests for Python and Javascript coding tasks in GitHub workflows.

Microsoft introduced a similar experience for GitHub Copilot last year that can recognize and explain code, alongside recommending changes and fixing bugs. Jules will compete against Microsoft’s offering, and also against tools like Cursor and even Claude and ChatGPT’s coding abilities. Google’s launch of a coding-focused AI assistant is no surprise — CEO Sundar Pichai said in October that more than a quarter of all new code at the company is now generated by AI.

“Jules handles bug fixes and other time-consuming tasks while you focus on what you actually want to build,” Google says in its blog post. “This effort is part of our long-term goal of building AI agents that are helpful in all domains, including coding.”

Developers have full control to review and adjust the plans created by Jules, before choosing to merge the code it generates into their projects. The announcement doesn’t say that Jules will spot bugs for you, so presumably it needs to be directed to a list of issues that have already been identified to fix. Google also says that Jules is in early development and “may make mistakes,” but internal testing has shown it’s been beneficial for boosting developer productivity and providing real-time updates to help track and manage tasks.

Jules is launching today for a “select group of trusted testers” according to Google, and will be released to other developers in early 2025. Updates about availability and how development is progressing will be available via the Google Labs website.

Instagram is allowing creators to test their reel ideas on new audiences before sharing them with followers. Trial reels will be shown to non-followers first, providing engagement data including views, likes, comments, and shares approximately 24 hours after publishing to help creators determine whether it’s worth sharing with people following their account.

The feature aims to help users try out new ideas and expand their audiences without negatively impacting their established following on the platform, which may be useful for creators who feel chained to a particular style of content. Instagram will provide insights that monitor how trials are performing compared to previous trials that the user has shared. Creators can then choose to share the trial reel with their followers if it’s performing well or set Instagram to automatically share it based on the views it receives within the first 72 hours.

“We often hear from creators that they feel nervous about posting too much to their audience or trying out new content that’s outside of their niche on Instagram, for fear of it not resonating with their followers,” Instagram said in its announcement. “Now, if you want to try out a new genre, storytelling format or topic, you can easily get a gut check on how your content might perform.”

Trial reels are rolling out starting today and will be globally available to “all eligible creators in the coming weeks,” according to Instagram. The feature is enabled via a “Trial” toggle before publishing a regular reel, and will appear alongside a user's drafts once live. Only the creator can see that the reel is a trial, and it won’t appear on their main grid or reels tab, or in the feeds or reels tabs of their followers.

Solos’ camera-equipped smart glasses have arrived to provide some much-needed competition against Meta’s Ray-Bans. The AirGo Vision is available now starting at $299 — the same price as the Ray-Ban Meta eyewear tech — and features integration with OpenAI’s GPT-4o AI model to identify and answer questions about the people, objects, and text seen by the camera.

That allows the AirGo Vision to do things like translate text into different languages, provide directions to nearby locations or landmarks, and give the wearer more information about what they’re looking at. Solos says the glasses can also be integrated with other AI models like Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, something the company previously teased when it announced the AirGo Vision in June.

Like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the AirGo Vision camera can capture photos on demand. A swappable frame system means that you can wear the glasses with or without the camera — the battery and touch sensors used to control the device are housed in the frame’s USB-C chargeable hinges, providing an audio-only option when paired with the standard, no-camera-included AirGo frames.

“One thing we promised to deliver on was allowing consumers to have control of their experience with AI and smart technology, particularly with privacy options in mind,” Solos co-founder Kenneth Fan said in the announcement. “That’s why we developed frames that can easily be changed to decide when and where a camera may be appropriate without sacrificing any of the fun features.”

Image: Solos

Image: Solos

Solos says the Vision comes “with the option to purchase the frame only for $149 or bundle a camera frame with a regular frame for enhanced privacy, priced at $349.” It’s available in seven colors and two frame styles: Krypton 1, which sports a large square design with prominent nose pads, and the slimmer Krypton 2.

Yelp is introducing some new AI features that aim to help users discover new establishments and narrow down customer reviews. The AI-powered “Review Insights,” announced today as part of Yelp’s end-of-year product release, quickly summarize how customers feel about certain aspects of a business, such as food quality, service, ambiance, and wait times.

Review insights are aggregated sentiment scores that provide a quick overview of topics using facial icons — positive, neutral, and critical — displayed above a business’s reviews. Yelp users can click specific topics to read related reviews that focus on those aspects of the business, such as what customers are saying about the food or service.

Yelp says the feature is available on iOS for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses, and will be expanded to services categories “next year.” Review insights builds on the AI-powered review summaries feature that Yelp introduced in January.

“When searching for a local restaurant, you might have a specific aspect in mind that matters most to you — be it the vibe of the space, how long it takes to get a table, or the quality of the food,” said Yelp’s Chief Product Officer Craig Saldanha in the announcement blog. “Even when a review doesn’t explicitly mention one of the topics, the LLM understands the context in the review to identify and surface the relevant topic and sentiment.”

Image: Yelp

The home feed search bar on iOS now features a trending drop-down that highlights the most popular terms other local users are looking for, which will be coming to Android “early next year.” The iOS app home page has also been expanded to include new reviews, photos, and full-screen video spotlights uploaded by other users that surface recent experiences. Yelp says it’s rolling out an AI-powered update that “better tailors the home feed to your preferences” in the coming weeks.

Many high-ranking AI apps feel like an attempted cash grab, and it’s not easy to spot the trash from the treasure.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Google Photos app is rolling out a throwback experience that highlights some of your most memorable moments from this year. The “2024 Recap” presentation feature announced today combines a collection of photos and insights with graphics and cinematic effects that summarize what users have been doing over the last 12 months.

Google Photos has released an annual review feature over the last few years, but this updated experience shares more similarities with Spotify Wrapped.

The 2024 Recap insights include information like how many photos you snapped, the longest photo streak length, most photographed colors, who you took the most photos of, and the people you smiled the most with. Google says that “select users in the US” who have Gemini enabled in the Photos app can also opt-in to receive a version of Recap that adds personalized captions highlighting the “two biggest moments from your year.”

Gif: Google

The Recap will appear in the Google Photos Memories carousel throughout December before relocating to the photo grid in January, and can be shared to messaging and social media apps. There are some caveats though — Recap is only available to Photos users who have the Face Groups setting enabled, which uses facial recognition to identify and group similar faces together. This feature has some regional restrictions, so the end-of-year highlights won’t be available globally.

Electronic Arts is expanding its accessibility program with 23 additional tech patents that other companies and developers can freely use without being slapped with an infringement lawsuit. The expansion more than doubles the total number of patents that EA has opened up since launching the pledge in 2021, and includes generation and recognition tools for speech and audio.

“We believe that games should be accessible to everyone and our industry-leading teams are always looking for new ways to make this a reality,” Kerry Hopkins, SVP of Global Affairs at EA, said in a press release. “By making this technology available to others, we continue to work to enhance accessibility and inclusivity for players around the world by removing unintended barriers to access.”

Some examples of open tech patents include systems that can improve speech recognition, generate expressive speech audio from text data, and generate speech that mimics a player’s voice based on minimal sample speech data. One system uses machine learning to make a player’s voice sound older, while another “infers a player’s emotion while playing a video game” and automatically adjusts the game’s background music to best suit their emotional state.

EA says these patents could be used to improve gaming experiences for players with speech disorders or who struggle with verbally expressing themselves, helping them to communicate in a way that better represents their age, emotion, language, and speaking style. Alongside this announcement, EA is also releasing a Unreal Engine 5 plugin that enables in-engine use of IRIS — EA’s photosensitivity analysis tech — to help game developers identify frames that could impact photosensitive players.

Vodafone and Three have been cleared to create the UK’s biggest mobile operator after committing to address concerns around network upgrades and price hikes. The proposed £16.5 billion merger (about $20.9 billion) was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday following months of regulatory scrutiny, and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.

“Having carefully considered the evidence, as well as the extensive feedback we have received, we believe the merger is likely to boost competition in the UK mobile sector and should be allowed to proceed – but only if Vodafone and Three agree to implement our proposed measures,” Stuart McIntosh, chair of the inquiry group leading the antitrust investigation, said in a statement.

The approval was subject to both companies signing binding commitments to invest billions into expanding their combined 5G network over the next eight years. The agreement also requires the new entity to cap some mobile tariffs and offer preset contractual terms to mobile virtual network operators for three years, addressing previous CMA concerns that the merger could harm competition and lead to higher prices for customers.

“Today’s approval releases the handbrake on the UK’s telecoms industry, and the increased investment will power the UK to the forefront of European telecommunications,” Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle said in a statement.

The plan to combine two of the country’s top four mobile operators was first announced in 2023, and will create a network with 27 million customers once complete. Vodafone will own 51 percent of the merged entity, and is expected to buy out the remaining 49 percent after three years. The deal follows similar large-scale mergers between companies like Orange and T-Mobile in 2010, and Virgin Mobile and O2 in 2021.