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Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis, also said the CMA appears to have all but approved the proposed Vodafone-Three merger.

Writing on LinkedIn, Egan said the CMA believes that the merger could be pro-competition “so long as it can be assured that the network promises of the merging parties will be fulfilled, and that the short-term customer protections that it talked about in its provisional findings (social tariffs, contract terms rolling over, wholesale reference offer) can be put in place.”

Egan pointed out that this is a step forward from the CMA’s provisional findings, “where it put forward such remedies, but also discussed structural remedies (although largely discounted them), and listed blocking the merger altogether as a remedy (which it did not discount).”

Three, which tends to have a younger customer base, generally has some of the cheapest monthly contracts among the four biggest mobile network operators, according to figures from Enders Analysis.

However, telecoms analysts are not convinced that the tie-up will necessarily lead to higher prices. “There doesn’t seem to be a correlation between fewer mobile players and consumer pricing,” said Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis.

“The UK will be better off if, as seems, this merger is finally approved,” Karen Egan, at Enders Research,said in a LinkedIn post. Blocking the deal “would not have yielded a positive outcome for the economy or consumers.”

James Barford, director of telecoms at Enders Analysis, says convincing investors of the company’s fibre broadband strategy is Kirkby’s greatest success. “Rolling out full fibre into 30 million homes is a huge undertaking.

“Under previous management they suspended the dividend [in 2020], the first time since privatisation in 1984, in order to pay for it, saying that when they finished the rollout it would increase free cashflow to £3 billion a year by the end of the decade.”

Barford says that Kirkby, BT’s first female chief executive, has convinced investors that the fibre rollout (which has been much slower than in other European countries) will happen and will make money in the long run.

“The reason the share price is up is because she is getting everything right, giving clear forward guidance and, importantly, sticking to BT’s core purpose. There is still a long way to go but it appears the full success is not priced in.”

Its operating profit fell to £646 million, from £898 million in 2023. Global is understood to be a laggard within the Business division, frustrating Kirkby. Karen Egan at Enders Analysis said: 'The problem is Global sells a lot of legacy services that simply are not that profitable.'