Posted by masseur
BBC article
Mobile UK and Orange are to merge - becoming the UK's biggest mobile phone firm with 28.4 million customers.
The merged firm will have about 37% of the UK mobile market - overtaking the current market leader, Telefonica's O2.
Posted by Bonovox
Oh wow is this for definate now? When will this take place? Does it mean T Mobile will disappear and become Orange or will they just be part of Orange?
Posted by anonymuser
Apparently they'll both continue as is for 18 months while they decide on branding going forward (ie, going with one or the other or something completely new).
Supposedly it'll mean a stronger network for both sets of customers, but I note they're already talking about how many towers they'll be able to dismantle, so rationalisation is obviously the order of the day. Strange to think that the combined network will be the biggest (in terms of subscriber numbers) in the UK, when both Orange and T-Mobile have been far behind Vodafone & O2/Celnet all this time..
Posted by Bonovox
Well Orange has 22% market share its not that far behind Vodafone but i guess these days 4% is still quite large. I think its great for Orange but hope they manage is properly. I hope though they dont decommison too many towers because a merge is an opportunity to improve coverage as well. The current boss Tom Alexander of Orange made a great success of Virgin Mobile. But improvements with Orange under him seem to be slow but there have been improvements though.
Posted by skblakee
The UK competition office will be looking at it as the merger will create an entity with more than 25% of the market so maybe the deal might not go through or they might be forced to give up some market share.
Such a merger likely means much less choices in phones, services so some might not be too happy.
This might not be good for costumers in the end.
Posted by Bonovox
Yeah if it means more phones with branding
Perhaps Orange will merge with pink to give a new network colour lol. Remember that O2 and Vodafone got their big market share off their own merit. Orange and T Mobile are getting big from just merging which is unfair to the others in a way. But good for Orange if they can pull it off but they need to improve things on a massive scale. I love Orange but all i wish them to do is see sense and stop branding their phones. What will happen with Virgin? Guess some day they will either piggy back off Orange/T Mobile or move to another provider. Be good having Virgin with better overall coverage as they are a quality brand. And will 3UK still continue to use Orange or will they leave 3UK out in the cold? Its all going to get interesting.
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Rock 'n' Roll Will Live Forever[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-09-08 13:31 ][ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-09-08 13:45 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-09-08 14:06 ]
Posted by Mr Miyagi
I am sure the competition authorities will be looking at this closely. And what will happen to 3 who share masts with t mobile. And also if this does get approved I wonder how many job losses will occur ?
Posted by Bonovox
Mmmm yes indeed. Jobs are all over the place either UK, India or the Phillipines in the case of T Mobile. Who will be the biggest loser i am sure there will be some. As usual its the UK that bares the brunt of losses
With 3 and T Mobile sharing masts and Virgin and other Carphone networks piggy backing off T Mobile its going to take some time to sort. The virtual networks might not get as good a deal with using the new merged networks and might go elsewhere anyway. Wait to see. But in the long run it could all be good. Lets hope eh. Hope they come up with good joint new tariffs that are similar to T Mobile ones with better data plans 
I wonder if companies merge like this and you have a contract with T Mobile would you be able to get out of that contract if your T's&C's change? This merge could stop them ever getting the iphone because subscriber numbers would start moving from O2 and making Orange/T Mobile too large and again not fair on O2. Not that all of O2 customers would move who have an iphone but its just a thought.
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Rock 'n' Roll Will Live Forever[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-09-08 17:50 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-09-08 18:37 ]
Posted by goldenface
Now it looks like 3UK is about to be snapped up by Vodafone or O2. Vodafone is the favourite as it is now third largest operator.
Posted by anonymuser
Good for Voda, they don't deserve to be relegated to third place IMHO, I'd still say they have the best network overall (yes their customer service needs improvement, but whose doesn't).
I live in out in the sticks, where traditionally both T-Mobile and Orange have always had pretty patchy coverage, so I have to say the prospect of "T-Orange" doesn't impress me much - bringing two poor networks together just adds up to one poor network as far as I can see. Vodafone could actually improve service for Three customers meanwhile, while the deal might also mean greater 3G coverage for existing Voda users, so that's a deal that makes more sense.
Posted by Bonovox
From years of experience being on Orange i have found their coverage to be very good out in the sticks. Their 3G i seem to get most places i travel too. I have had very good Orange coverage travelling through even parts of Wales. One place i find Orange poor is Norfolk. I find Vodafone not as good as expected and O2 thinly spread. I never have a problem with Orange anywhere and i travel alot around the UK.