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Originally Posted by Horizon
...especially as Liberty and Vodafone are merging their operations in Holland as a possible precursor to a full blown merger in the future.
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Didn't those talks fall through a month or so ago?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
Yep, and if they're not careful, they'll lose the broadband advantage too.
If I were VM, I'd offer a killer broadband offer to wipe the floor with BT and Sky. Say a 100mb basic tier for a cheaper price than what the others offer for their 76mb services. So, not only would it be cheaper than rivals, but the VM basic tier would be faster than the others highest tier.
In another 3-5 years, they'll be a lot more FTTP out there to compete against VM, so time it short. And probably before then, Vodafone will come back and put a spanner in the works and mess everything up....
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The problem is that Virgin can't just ramp up capacity without significant investment. They're only just about on top of the majority of the congestion they currently have, bumping the majority of users to 100Mbit would just cost them a lot of money and, if capacity isn't there, actually cause them to lose customers.
I do think Virgin is missing a trick with the landline pricing, but now that ISPs are going to be forced to quote the full price of broadband including telephone line (if required), Virgin could make a compelling argument that they're significantly cheaper than the competition. Perhaps with their VoIP offering, they could basically give you broadband without a landline for no additional cost. That would be an incredible win.