Cable Forum - View Single Post - France Telecom/Deutsche Telekom UK operations merger

m419 · 30-09-2009, 12:36

Firstly, i'm very suprised that the merger of Orange Personal Communications Services and T-Mobile UK is going ahead.

Two very different companies with a similar product portfolio but at the same time direct competitors.

The advantage of the merger is that it MAY improve network coverage over time.

The disadvantages of this:

Many Job losses
increased costs to customers
Less choice for customers

Towns which have an Orange shop and a T-Mobile store will loose one of them, product ranges in outsourced stores such as Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U may also drop to save money, 3 have done this by not selling Pay As You Go phones in Carphone Warehouse, you need to use 3Store either online or on the high street or at skype.com

And what will happen to the philipino call centre in use by T-Mobile and the indian call centre used by Orange for Pay As You Go services, the merged company will increase the use of the outsourced call centres to save money and cut costs.

It is likely that the newly merged company which is expected to merge into one brand sometime in early 2011 will be branded as Orange, France Telecom paid a fortune for the brand and i'm sure they will not give it up! Its attractive,bright and distinctive and widely popular around the world, It will also cost the merged company a lot of money to create a new brand, Orange has already spent a fortune on rebranding Freeserve twice, so by using the Orange brand in the future will cut costs.

The company will also be connected to the Virgin Brand as it will be providing Virgin Media with its network for Virgin Mobile customers.

In time, Orange or the new merged company will eventually phase out its 2G product range and provide a similar service as 3, being completely 3G. This is one of the reasons why the networks are merging.

There is a question of how the networks will work with this merger, Hutchison 3G and T-Mobile 3G have already merged there 3G infrastructure, the orange 3G Network will join with this, this is actually good news for those having network coverage problems on the 3,T-Mobile and Orange 3G networks. It will eventually provide the UK with nearly 100% coverage and stronger coverage.

Hutchison 3G have already launched an advertising campaign reagarding its 3G network coverage, mentioning that its coverage should be much better come next year.

The only problem with 3 is that 3G signals don't travel as far as 2G signals and as 3 is only 3G, this is the reason why some people especially in houses with very thick walls or people living basement flats may experience poor 3G coverage, this is a problem with all 3G networks and the only solution to this is more masts.

30-09-2009, 12:36	#1
m419 Inactive Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: London Services: BT Broadband,BT Anytime calls,Sky entertainment extra HD,Vodafone pay monthly Posts: 1,512	France Telecom/Deutsche Telekom UK operations merger Firstly, i'm very suprised that the merger of Orange Personal Communications Services and T-Mobile UK is going ahead. Two very different companies with a similar product portfolio but at the same time direct competitors. The advantage of the merger is that it MAY improve network coverage over time. The disadvantages of this: Many Job losses increased costs to customers Less choice for customers Towns which have an Orange shop and a T-Mobile store will loose one of them, product ranges in outsourced stores such as Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U may also drop to save money, 3 have done this by not selling Pay As You Go phones in Carphone Warehouse, you need to use 3Store either online or on the high street or at skype.com And what will happen to the philipino call centre in use by T-Mobile and the indian call centre used by Orange for Pay As You Go services, the merged company will increase the use of the outsourced call centres to save money and cut costs. It is likely that the newly merged company which is expected to merge into one brand sometime in early 2011 will be branded as Orange, France Telecom paid a fortune for the brand and i'm sure they will not give it up! Its attractive,bright and distinctive and widely popular around the world, It will also cost the merged company a lot of money to create a new brand, Orange has already spent a fortune on rebranding Freeserve twice, so by using the Orange brand in the future will cut costs. The company will also be connected to the Virgin Brand as it will be providing Virgin Media with its network for Virgin Mobile customers. In time, Orange or the new merged company will eventually phase out its 2G product range and provide a similar service as 3, being completely 3G. This is one of the reasons why the networks are merging. There is a question of how the networks will work with this merger, Hutchison 3G and T-Mobile 3G have already merged there 3G infrastructure, the orange 3G Network will join with this, this is actually good news for those having network coverage problems on the 3,T-Mobile and Orange 3G networks. It will eventually provide the UK with nearly 100% coverage and stronger coverage. Hutchison 3G have already launched an advertising campaign reagarding its 3G network coverage, mentioning that its coverage should be much better come next year. The only problem with 3 is that 3G signals don't travel as far as 2G signals and as 3 is only 3G, this is the reason why some people especially in houses with very thick walls or people living basement flats may experience poor 3G coverage, this is a problem with all 3G networks and the only solution to this is more masts.