Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Only provisionally ATM though I expect it will be approved.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...-to-merge.html

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

What benefits with the customers get?


I have TV, BB and landline from VM, and I have 2 O2 phone contracts.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Existing customers - probibly none as VM have a 5yr MVNO agreement with Vodaphone.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

The chance to buy shares in the new company if it floats?

Mergers are done for the benefit of companies' owners, not their customers. Sometimes the two interests overlap, sometimes they don't.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Homer is the target, anecdotally speaking.

There are a lot of O2 customers that don't have VM services and a lot of VM customers that don't have O2 services.

Back office synergies and costs savings too.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Yes, the opportunity to be cross-sold is the main benefit for customers. Perhaps with O2 shops now featuring the V6 and signing up VM broadband customers as well.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

i was under the impression they were going to buy themselves out of that contract?

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

They haven't done so yet.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

There's no need to.

There is a lot of work going on prior to the merger in finalising what the new architecture and equipment will be to support the O2 infrastructure in the new entity.

Then it has to be built and activated which will probably take some time, I haven't seen a programme.

As seen as there is a contract in place with Vodafone it doesn't make sense to break it and incur penalties and potential disruption when it can all be moved over at a later date when everything is in place.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Do we know when the contract with vodafone ends?

I'm an o2 customer at the moment and have been for about 18 years but been thinking about leaving for a while and just getting a mobile with virgin media instead.

Now they're merging with o2...

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

That's a bit complicated to answer. The 5yr Vodaphone contract was signged late 2019 but Virgin's EE contract doesn't end until late 2021. Persumably the Vodaphone one will commecnce then or does it? They are already rolling out Vodaphone's 5G connectivity does that mean the Vodaphone contract is already in effect? Who knows other than Virgin?

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

So whom would be servicing virgin mobile if l signed up in the next few weeks ? Have vodaphone at the moment and it is rubbish . :dunce:

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Vodafone.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

What's O2 customer service like (never used them) and do they use UK based call centres?

If it 's any good, hopefully they will improve the current abysmal CS efforts of VM.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

I moved to sky in readiness.
They carry over my unused data for 3 years as well, as opposed to Virgin who do it for 1 month.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

I think it was okay when I was with them a while back. But mergers are rarely about doing things well and they can tend to be a race to the bottom. I'd honestly expect VM to not change a habit of a lifetime, they'll more than likely offshore O2's customer services if they are still UK based.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

It's a merger and no reason that VM will dominate decisions like this one. Indeed, the Chief Commercial Officer for Mobile in the merged company will come from O2. https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2021...nts-confirmed/

And when BT acquired EE, it subsequently committed to onshoring call centres which it has achieved.

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

The merger was finally approved today.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...-to-merge.html

Re: Virgin Media merger with O2 approved by competition regulator
 

Now launched today

https://www.o2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2


[I thought VM did the latter anyway? :confused:]

https://www.cityam.com/virgin-media-...r-31bn-merger/