Vodafone and Three have been plotting their merger in the UK for at least a year, with intensive behind the scenes lobbying of the government, anti-trust agency CMA (Competition and Mergers Authority), and telco regulator Ofcom. This may still not be enough to allow the merger to pass without investigation since it reduces the number of mobile networks in the UK from four to three, often seen in the past as passing a red flag in major markets. The basic terms of the deal are much as has long been reported, for Vodafone to own 51% of the merged company, and Three’s owner, Hong Kong based conglomerate majoring on telecoms and infrastructure CK Hutchison, taking 49%, with capitalization around $18.6…