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In the UK, T-Mobile and Orange To Merge
EthanV2 sends in BBC coverage of the merger plans of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK. "T-Mobile and Orange plan to merge their UK businesses, creating a mobile phone giant with 28.4 million customers. If completed, a deal between Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Orange owner France Telecom would see a firm with sales of €9.4 B (£7.0 B, $13.4 B). It would be the UK's largest provider, overtaking Telefonica's O2, with about 37% of the mobile market. ... However, it is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal."
However, it is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal.
Is there ever any news of mergers that hit Slashdot that aren't probed by the EU?
Supposedly the new company would have around 37% of the market, which sounds daft given that there are only 60 million people in the UK. What this doesn't account for is the number of people who have both personal mobiles and mobiles supplied by their employers, eg for on-call purposes.
O2 have around 28% and Vodafone 25%, so there isn't that much in it. The issue the regulators seem to have is that the UK market will go from five major (O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3) players to four, and the merged Orange/T-Mobile would have a very large retail presence as well.
There are a couple of virtual providers out there as well. IIRC Virgin use the T-Mobile network, so this merger may have an impact on them.
Probably of more interest is what happens to the subscribers of Virgin, Tesco etc. who effectively get their contacts via T-Mobile. Will their contacts/rates increase/change to Oranges when the deal is complete? Will Orange instead move them onto another plan?
Both the EU and UK (Competition Commission and/or Ofcom) regulators will be paying a great deal of attention to the merger, given the high barriers of entry to the market place (i.e. it's not really possible) and the low number of competitors.
As MVNOs they have contacts with the operators, virgin with tmobile and tesco with O2 but any change in ownership would allow the respective MVNOs to get out of the contract and use a different network, so i doubt there would be much difference in price in the short time. Although the register mentions in the article this maybe a reason why they have decided to do a 50 : 50 merger so the change in ownership clause does not become an issue.
In the UK, people annoyed by retardedly phrased Slashdot headlines.
I'm pretty sure that anything over 25% would legally be a monopoly in the UK (I know technically it's not a monopoly, but in a rare case of foresight the monopoplies and mergers laws took into account that 25%+ is enough to distort a market).
What, like the HTC Hero that's been available since July? (see orange.co.uk) Apparently they're also looking at the upcoming Motorola Android phone
-- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
The barrier isn't that high as long as the EU keeps doing what it's been doing. MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) is the new thing, this has already taken off in Denmark for instance, it's fairly cheap to start up and due to regulations you aren't being bled dry by the actual owner of the network. It is however fairly new and quite a few kinks has to be ironed out.
...given the high barriers of entry to the market place (i.e. it's not really possible) and the low number of competitors.
Didn't 3 prove over the last 5 years that entry to the market-place is perfectly possible? And, as The Register notes:
The UK mobile industry is one of the most competitive in the world
So I don't imagine anyone's going to stop this...
If you read the summary, it is about 37% of the market. There are more cellphones than people in the UK. Pretty much everyone has a cellphone, and a lot of people have more than one - eg work cellphone and personal cellphone.
We already have a number of MVNOs in the UK (we had them before the EU started to promote them); Tesco and Virgin spring to mind but the question remains whether they are having a significant effect on the market, they don't seem to have taken a significant market share just yet. If the merger is let through it may well be on the back of mandatory provision (rate + terms) for MVNO by the merged company.
This merger makes me very happy indeed. One of my kids is a lawyer specialising in telecoms competition issues. Recession? What recession?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I have read that such a deal would probably result in a total monopoly on the back end for Ericsson.
Thus the networks (Vodafone, O2, Orange-Mobile and Three) could have their operating costs pushed up, which would be passed on to the consumer.
"There is nothing nice about Steve Jobs and nothing evil about Bill Gates." - Chuck Peddle
What this doesn't account for is the number of people who have both personal mobiles and mobiles supplied by their employers, eg for on-call purposes
And those who have multiple mobile accounts for other reasons. I have two Orange pay-as-you-go accounts that I use only to get the cheap cinema ticket offers that Orange does. My day-to-day account is Vodafone. Because they give SIMs away, and most of us have old handsets lying around, having multiple accounts like this can't be uncommon.
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Not really, most of the MVNO's have been bought by the operator that owns their network. There are no large independent MVNO's anymore.
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I have two Orange pay-as-you-go accounts that I use only to get the cheap cinema ticket offers that Orange does.
Seriously? Have you looked at the cost of an annual pass in your local cinema? You'd probably pay less for unlimited films.
> In a couple of 60 million people
wow , that is a seriously open relationship
[site]
PAYG accounts are free if you don't use them... so I doubt he'd be able to pay less.
Seconded. I moved from Orange to T-Mobile, despite the fact I was largely happy with the Orange service, to get the G1. Despite the fact I find corporate monopolies to be scary, this is probably going to work out well for me as a customer; Orange have a better network IMHO than T-Mobile.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
My favourite bit is when he smacks the fat guy round the head. Guess they will be bringing 'order' to the industry now...
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
He may however on the overall costs including the cinema tickets
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Did they already extend into Poland?
well it's a story about operators in the UK where the GBP is king. also the euro has a relevancy here too
the dollar isn't really relevant to a story here unless it's maybe about the exchange rate or some such.
so unless you are personally willing to go through ALL the stories here on slashdot and convert ALL the dollar values to GBP and Euros then there's ALWAYS www.xe.com to help
you are welcome
The only other major one I know of is TalkTalk, which is owned by Carphone Warehouse, and uses Vodafone's network.
There aren't going to be any more spectrum auctions for a while. Three got in by bidding in the last auction, and they aren't exactly that new to the market. Hutchison Wampoa, the Chinese company that owns Three was the original owner of Orange.
I wanted to do this, but T-mobile coverage where I live is so abysmal it wasn't really an option. But I think all the carriers have them now.
Since somebody is clearly removing all the posts that are actual spam, couldn't they remove ones like this while they're about it?
Seconded. I moved from Orange to T-Mobile, despite the fact I was largely happy with the Orange service, to get the G1.
I moved from Orange to Three when I got my HTC Dream because Orange's data price structure is totally uncompetitive with pretty much any of the other MNOs....
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I use Tesco on O2's network. They offer everything the big boys do... plus loyalty points. Cheap, cheap phones, unlocked after only a £30 spend too.
For those who don't know, Tesco are the biggest retailer in the UK. Something like 1 in every 6 pounds is spent at Tesco.
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3 is not an MVNO. They may have recently set up a network sharing agreement with T-Mobile, but that doesn't make them a virtual network. The basic idea is that all existing T-Mobile 3G towers now transmit both T-Mobile and 3 identifiers, and same goes for the existing 3 ones.
However, their network is a bit patchy, but their data plans aren't too bad - but watch their out-of-bundle rates of 10p/MB on contract or £1/MB on PAYG.
Compare to Orange's "mobile broadband" offering where their bundles might not be quite as generous but out-of-bundle is 1.5p/MB.
-- Soruk
The EU tend to be vicious these days with mobile operators, so I'm not really worried about the monopoly aspect. What I'm pleased about is what this could potentially do to HSPA coverage on our fair Isle. T-Mobile & Huchinson are already in bed till 2031 in a UMTS Network sharing agreement. Add Orange into the mix and Voda (with their handful of 14.4Mbps coverage spots) don't really look too hot...
And who do you want in court? Elderly lawyers who don't understand this newfangled mobile phone stuff, or specialists who have studied the subject, worked with both providers and Government departments, and understand the issues?
Let me reiterate:not only are you nasty, you are clearly totally unqualified to comment on the subject.
You might also like to consider, insofar as you are capable, that perhaps if companies were not so monopolistic and their bosses - who get paid far more than even the richest lawyers - not so greedy, the need for corporate lawyers would rapidly dry up.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Pay £10 for a PAYG SIM, save £7/trip to the cinema on Orange Wednesdays scheme. Get two tickets a year and you're up already. It'd take a lot more trips than that to win on an annual pass, even if they are available.
Annual pass? I'm pretty sure no cinemas in my area (in the USA) will do that... where are you?
Otherwise, paying a flat rate for a phone you never use to save a good bit on cinema tickets sounds like an excellent idea.
I have T-mobile on a sim only deal, and the sim (with 50 minutes call time - any network) costs 6.50 per month. I added unlimited data for 7.50 per month (tethering allowed). I get full speed HSDPA access most places. If they merge with Orange, I wonder who'll be pulling the strings, because I'll be off if they mess with my data plan.
Check Ofcom. 3 have the best 3G coverage in the UK.
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OK, you'd have to go more than twice a month to make a pass worthwhile.
In the UK, a monthly pass is worthwhile in summer when a lot of hits come out.