More mergers....

[Russ]

First it was T-Mobile and Orange, now the other major players are looking at a merge...

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/news.aspx?id=60905

I can't see Ofcom going for that. Buying 3 would make either Voda or O2 far too powerful.

[Druchii]

Can't be good for competition...

[m419]

I very much doubt Hutchison will sell 3, after all its invested in 3, 3 is finally begining to take off with much improved network coverage and vast range of products and services, Hutchison should give it a couple of years first, try and take on Vodafone and O2.

Reality has it, 3 is the best 3G network, most O2 customers are 2G users because the network and range is poor. if anything the tables might turn and Hutchison will end up buying O2 UK.

---------- Post added at 16:56 ---------- Previous post was at 16:52 ----------

Also there are a lot and I mean a lot of people that hate orange and T-Mobile, so hutchison 3g could end up with a lot of new customers!

[Russ]

And believe me there are plenty of people who can't stand 3's "thank you please" Indian callcentres.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by m419

I very much doubt Hutchison will sell 3, after all its invested in 3, 3 is finally begining to take off with much improved network coverage and vast range of products and services, Hutchison should give it a couple of years first, try and take on Vodafone and O2.

Reality has it, 3 is the best 3G network, most O2 customers are 2G users because the network and range is poor. if anything the tables might turn and Hutchison will end up buying O2 UK.

A good 3g network is likely to make it more of a target for takeovers. That article appears to speculate that Hutchinson has been looking for a way to exit the UK mobile phones market (which isn't actually very profitable, hence T mobile being sold off).

Also there are a lot and I mean a lot of people that hate orange and T-Mobile, so hutchison 3g could end up with a lot of new customers!

Funny, I know of one person who is on 3 and happy.. You. Everyone else I have known who has had a three contract has left as soon as they could and advised everyone they know to avoid three at all costs.

[m419]

lol I think 3 is the best thing since sliced bread, indian call centres don't bother me, what if you speak to a native indian in a UK call centre? what is the difference?

They deal with my enquiry effectively, job done, T-Mobile uses call centres in the phillipines,Orange has indian call centres,some 118 services have foreign call centres,118000 orange has a call centre in Dublin,Vonage call centre is in the americas,British Gas has indian call centres,Virgin Media have indian Call centres,Virgin Mobile have south african call centres,Sky are using indian call centres,Abbey National use indian call centres and you know what I think the halifax have a call centre in poland because several times, I've reached an eastern european voice oh and not forgetting Barclays who also use Indian call centres.

Not fogetting but:

Orange
O2
T-Mobile
3
Sky
Npower
EDF
Scottish power
Eon
Santander Abbey
Asda
Primark
Nokia
Sony Erricson
Samsung
Siemens
Procter and Gamble
Kraft
Lidl
Coca-cola enterprises
Pepsico
Danone
Nestle

are all foreign owned, and all profit goes to shareholders in there countries.

Oh not forgetting to mention, most of your clothing,electronics and virtually anything thats manufacturered will come from an Asian country.

So all this tripe about foreign call centres is silly because virtually everything that you use or buy comes from abroad. Yet people don't seem to complain about that.

The use of indian call centres saves companies money and means they can spend the money on more important services.

Virgin Media for example made redundant a lot of employees between 2006 and 2009, the main reason for that was because they cost too much money and the money would go to something better like building 50MB broadband and expanding HD TV services for its customers. Its sad that they had been made redundant but what is the point of having all those call centre staff? When NTL and Telewest merged as it became one company, there was no need to have so many employees to answer phone calls. Why have two technical support centres when you can have just one. Therefore redundancies happened. Virgin Media then decided more money had to be made and generate more revenue to fund future services and projects, they then expanded the use of foreign call centres to save money.

Its either indian call centres or bigger bills, what would you like?

And to be honest after my experience of Orange's UK call centres, I wouldn't care less if all UK companies converted to foreign call centres, Orange call centre staff over in the UK are rude,slow and there lack of knowledge was beyond belief.

So yeah i judge a good service provider on terms of:

Good network coverage- T-Mobile and Orange are crap at this one. 2G and 3G

Easy to understand bills- T-Mobile,O2 and Orange fail on this as well

Good range of tariffs- No wonder Vodafone is slipping away,there tariffs have gone downhill

And why T-Mobile is having difficulty in the UK:

Poor Network coverage 2G and 3G
Expensive and confusing tariffs such as Flext
Limited options and services on Pay As You Go
Offer Virgin Mobile limited services to at expensive rates.

Virgin Mobile is the largest MVNO on the T-Mobile network, T-Mobile offers a lot less bandwith for mobile broadband services in comparison to T-Mobile Direct customers, so a lack of customer interest in Virgin Mobile also effects T-Mobile's revenues.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by m419

lol I think 3 is the best thing since sliced bread, indian call centres don't bother me, what if you speak to a native indian in a UK call centre? what is the difference?

*cracks knuckles*

Right, here goes.

In Indian they simple don't understand our 'mobile' culture. They have a particular work ethic that says they serve the company and not the customer - completely the wrong way around. I've got no problem with company policies but with Indian callcentres they simply fail to grasp the way we expect service.

You seem to think our issue is with money going out of the country - no idea where you get that from. They have trouble with regional accents and often with mine - I'm Welsh. People say "all you have to do is speak slowly and clearly" - why should I change the way I speak on the phone just because that company decides to have a callcentre in a different country?

I spent a miserable 12 months with 3 and each time I called the agent just sounded so fake. You could tell what they were saying was being spoken from a script which looked good on paper but did not translate when used in the spoken word. For example one guy offered to put me on a different tariff, his words were "On this new plan you will enjoy calls from 5p per minute". That's just one example but "you will enjoy calls..."? I might rabbit on about all kinds of rubbish at times but I'm pretty sure I've never said (or heard someone else say) that I would "enjoy" calls at a certain rate.

But no it's not just 3 - it's any company using Indian callcentres. There is a complete breakdown in cultural understanding on their part. I've been called "Mr Russ" by them loads of times in the past - that might be the way they address people in Indian but they are serving US - in the UK.

I'm not going to waste any more of my time going on about Indian callcentres as a) it's off topic and b) I've mentioned it loads of times on here but if a merger between 3 and any of the other networks brings their CS to the UK then I'll be all for it.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by m419

lol I think 3 is the best thing since sliced bread, indian call centres don't bother me, what if you speak to a native indian in a UK call centre? what is the difference?

They deal with my enquiry effectively, job done, T-Mobile uses call centres in the phillipines,Orange has indian call centres,some 118 services have foreign call centres,118000 orange has a call centre in Dublin,Vonage call centre is in the americas,British Gas has indian call centres,Virgin Media have indian Call centres,Virgin Mobile have south african call centres,Sky are using indian call centres,Abbey National use indian call centres and you know what I think the halifax have a call centre in poland because several times, I've reached an eastern european voice oh and not forgetting Barclays who also use Indian call centres.

From a consumer point of view, I require that any call centre deal with any queries I have quickly and efficiently. I do not care where they are (they could be on Mars for all I care).

Trying to look at the big picture, I would rather the jobs not go abroad as I believe it will ultimately be bad for the economy. I am happy to pay extra (if I can afford to and if necessary) for this.

Not fogetting but:

Orange
O2
T-Mobile
3
Sky
Npower
EDF
Scottish power
Eon
Santander Abbey
Asda
Primark
Nokia
Sony Erricson
Samsung
Siemens
Procter and Gamble
Kraft
Lidl
Coca-cola enterprises
Pepsico
Danone
Nestle

are all foreign owned, and all profit goes to shareholders in there countries.

Oh not forgetting to mention, most of your clothing,electronics and virtually anything thats manufacturered will come from an Asian country.

So all this tripe about foreign call centres is silly because virtually everything that you use or buy comes from abroad. Yet people don't seem to complain about that.

The use of indian call centres saves companies money and means they can spend the money on more important services.

Virgin Media for example made redundant a lot of employees between 2006 and 2009, the main reason for that was because they cost too much money and the money would go to something better like building 50MB broadband and expanding HD TV services for its customers. Its sad that they had been made redundant but what is the point of having all those call centre staff? When NTL and Telewest merged as it became one company, there was no need to have so many employees to answer phone calls. Why have two technical support centres when you can have just one. Therefore redundancies happened. Virgin Media then decided more money had to be made and generate more revenue to fund future services and projects, they then expanded the use of foreign call centres to save money.

Its either indian call centres or bigger bills, what would you like?

And to be honest after my experience of Orange's UK call centres, I wouldn't care less if all UK companies converted to foreign call centres, Orange call centre staff over in the UK are rude,slow and there lack of knowledge was beyond belief.

So yeah i judge a good service provider on terms of:

Good network coverage- T-Mobile and Orange are crap at this one. 2G and 3G

Easy to understand bills- T-Mobile,O2 and Orange fail on this as well

Good range of tariffs- No wonder Vodafone is slipping away,there tariffs have gone downhill

And why T-Mobile is having difficulty in the UK:

Poor Network coverage 2G and 3G
Expensive and confusing tariffs such as Flext
Limited options and services on Pay As You Go
Offer Virgin Mobile limited services to at expensive rates.

Virgin Mobile is the largest MVNO on the T-Mobile network, T-Mobile offers a lot less bandwith for mobile broadband services in comparison to T-Mobile Direct customers, so a lack of customer interest in Virgin Mobile also effects T-Mobile's revenues.

All true, but not strictly speaking relevant to a discussion about a potential merger between 3 and either Vodafone or O2.

[m419]

Well, you say that by merging 3 with another network already operating in the UK such as O2 or Vodafone will bring there customer services to the UK, very much doubt it, after investing on buying another network they will be looking at ways of saving money, which means more foreign call centres. O2 will eventually do it because the amount of time it takes them to answer the phone leaves me to think they have fewer employees to answer the phone and when customers start complaining the cheapest solution is to use foreign call centres to fill the gaps to ensure calls are answered within 2 minutes.

[Scarlett]

Another vote for the leaving 3 as soon as possible. Coverage in my house is bad and the worst part it half the time when you apparently have signal, it will just refuse to make the call and your suddenly left with no signal (which promptly recovers to full strength) I've had more dropped calls than you can shake a stick at.

I can't see any one merging with 3, t-mobile and orange make sense, they are both using the same technology and the merging wouldn't be too hard but as peeps have said 3 are mostly 3G (and what a con that is -I've stopped my phone from trying to auto connect to 3G so that we can get a battery to last more than a day. video calling (which is part of why we got the phones) doesn't work.).

Mind you they could merge with o2 and become o3 ;-)

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Russ B

First it was T-Mobile and Orange, now the other major players are looking at a merge...

and it won't stop there.

There will be 3/4 network players of any worth in a few years. All owning a tv business, broadband business and telco/mobile business as a starter.

Whether they be called:

BT/02
Virgin Media Vodafone
Sky Easynet 3
Orange Tiscali Carphone

or some other combination, it will happen/is happening.

The distinction between a cable tv company, mobile phone company, satellite company, telephone company will be gone.

There will just be 3 or 4 players who will do the "lot".

It gets even more interesting when this happens:

BT/02/ITV/RTL
Virgin Media/Vodafone/Time Warner
Sky/Easynet/3/Ch5
Orange/Tiscali/Carphone Warehouse/Ch4/Disney

or whatever combination will emerge.