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

Ignitionnet · 30-09-2009, 19:09

Why would costs increase given that the combined group will still have competition from Vodafone, O2, 3 and a number of MVNOs?

It will certainly improve coverage for customers of both, no 'may' about it, in addition it will provide considerable efficiency and cost savings on network and potentially superior mobile broadband services, with cutting the number of cell towers backhaul from the remaining ones can be increased more easily. Some of these costs may be passed back to us in lower tariffs, and certainly we'll see better quality 3G / mobile broadband services thanks to statistical multiplexing from larger cell tower backhauls.

Your remark about what will happen to the existing outsourced call centres confuses me. If the two both already outsource what extra is there to outsource, and if increased outsourcing to cut costs were on the agenda why hasn't it already been done?

There's nothing objectionable about this merger at all, the UK market remains competitive with multiple operators offering competing services.

Your remarks regarding phasing out of 2G in favour of 3G are poorly informed. Yes 2G will be going, and that nice low attenuation spectrum will have 3G services going across it. The range issues are not a problem with 3G, they are a problem with the frequencies it presently operates in, these being much higher frequencies than the 2G networks and therefore more prone to attenuation. Simple physics, higher frequency equals smaller wavelength equals more attenuation across a given distance through a given material as the wave is more compressed. The 'only solution' is not more masts it's to deploy 3G at lower frequencies... such as those Ofcom will be selling off very shortly as part of the digital switch off and those presently used for GSM.

Who cares what the merged company brands into? Won't affect the service being provided. Virgin Media doesn't magically mean better services than ntl:Telewest - it's just a name, a brand identity and a way to spam us with red painted rubbish. Chances are extremely high it will retain the name 'Orange' simply because Orange is a more recognised name in the UK than T-Mobile.

Your post appears to be an attempt to find faults with the merger because you disagree with it, apart from job losses from overlap between the two in the UK in terms of retail outlets, IT, etc, I'm not actually sure there are any and certainly not enough for the proposal to be given a second thought by regulators.

30-09-2009, 19:09	#2
Ignitionnet Inactive Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire Age: 47 Posts: 13,995	Re: France Telecom/Deutsche Telekom UK operations merger Why would costs increase given that the combined group will still have competition from Vodafone, O2, 3 and a number of MVNOs? It will certainly improve coverage for customers of both, no 'may' about it, in addition it will provide considerable efficiency and cost savings on network and potentially superior mobile broadband services, with cutting the number of cell towers backhaul from the remaining ones can be increased more easily. Some of these costs may be passed back to us in lower tariffs, and certainly we'll see better quality 3G / mobile broadband services thanks to statistical multiplexing from larger cell tower backhauls. Your remark about what will happen to the existing outsourced call centres confuses me. If the two both already outsource what extra is there to outsource, and if increased outsourcing to cut costs were on the agenda why hasn't it already been done? There's nothing objectionable about this merger at all, the UK market remains competitive with multiple operators offering competing services. Your remarks regarding phasing out of 2G in favour of 3G are poorly informed. Yes 2G will be going, and that nice low attenuation spectrum will have 3G services going across it. The range issues are not a problem with 3G, they are a problem with the frequencies it presently operates in, these being much higher frequencies than the 2G networks and therefore more prone to attenuation. Simple physics, higher frequency equals smaller wavelength equals more attenuation across a given distance through a given material as the wave is more compressed. The 'only solution' is not more masts it's to deploy 3G at lower frequencies... such as those Ofcom will be selling off very shortly as part of the digital switch off and those presently used for GSM. Who cares what the merged company brands into? Won't affect the service being provided. Virgin Media doesn't magically mean better services than ntl:Telewest - it's just a name, a brand identity and a way to spam us with red painted rubbish. Chances are extremely high it will retain the name 'Orange' simply because Orange is a more recognised name in the UK than T-Mobile. Your post appears to be an attempt to find faults with the merger because you disagree with it, apart from job losses from overlap between the two in the UK in terms of retail outlets, IT, etc, I'm not actually sure there are any and certainly not enough for the proposal to be given a second thought by regulators.