T Mobile to leave UK.

[DRZ400]

Originally Posted by brundles

The outsourcing of the infrastructure maintenance is (IMO) pretty much irrelevant. Ignoring the engineering limitations of the individual networks i mentioned earlier, the changes required on the network side are significant enough that E// would ask for a bundle of cash to make those changes - which in itself rules out the subscriber friendly merger in the current climate..

As you use the E/// acronym I believe you're in the business, BUT as for the Three / T-Mobile merger ..... the co-location projects well under way under the name 'Project Moran'.

[CHiLL]

What would happen to me?

I'm using pay as you go on T-Mobile, on text appeal (3p texts). I use it because I simply don't use my phone enough to be on contract. I don't know of any company (I haven't actually researched) that offers such cheap texts. I don't want to lose that service.

[m419]

Well if you stay on that tariff and not change sim cards or tariffs then you will be fine. They have already withdrawn Text Appeal plan months ago!!!But really to be honest, if you want something like this on Pay As You Go,then there are tariffs available.

Virgin Mobile Addict tariff:

Offers unlimited texts when you top up with £20,20p per call Voicemail,20p per minute calls to all networks and 15p per minute calls to 08 numbers. Plus Mobile internet costs a flat rate of 30p a day. T-Mobile charge you 40p per minute for calling 08 numbers and there is a minimum charge of 1 minute for all calls plus Mobile internet costs £1 a day.

Orange Dolphin Tariff:

Calls cost 20p to call all networks,Orange Answerphone costs 15p per minute, you get 300 free texts every month when you top up £10 in a month,600 free texts when you top up by £20 per month and unlimited texts when you top up with £30 or more. Mobile internet costs £1.50 per day.

Furthermore, 3 are offering good phones with Unlimited texts,Unlimited calls to 3 Mobiles and 200 minutes for calling other networks as well as Free Skype minutes all for just £20 per month. Visit three.co.uk for more info.

[CHiLL]

But that's the point, I don't use my phone that much, I don't often call people, so I text most of the time. I spend about £10 every 2/3 months, so going on a monthly contract, or having to top up by £20/£30 would cost me more than I was originally spending.

I just want to know if there's another tariff that is pay as you go and 3p texts, or something similar?

[brundles]

Originally Posted by DRZ400

As you use the E/// acronym I believe you're in the business, BUT as for the Three / T-Mobile merger ..... the co-location projects well under way under the name 'Project Moran'.

Slightly slow catching up on this one. You're half right - I used to work for Nortel in their GSM wireless division until November last year .

By co-location I assume you're referring to the access network rather than core? Co-locating the access side is great for the operators costs and can help coverage (if the subscribers are lucky) but that'll be about as friendly as it gets. There's also the fact that they're likely to pick and choose which spots they co-locate to get the best benefits so I doubt it'll give the ideal result that we as paying customers would want to see . I wouldn't be surprised to find they push the limits of the capacity for any shared access points to get the maximum reduced costs so you might get better coverage but more chance of running in to problems at busy times.

Originally Posted by CHiLL

I just want to know if there's another tariff that is pay as you go and 3p texts, or something similar?

If it helps, I think the Asda Mobile PayGo tariff carried by Vodafone runs at 4p/text.

[DRZ400]

They're keeping their seperate core networks but co-locating the UMTS BTS equipment.

[Zee]

This might be good for 3 customers and T mobile customers too... hopefully they dont merge with Orange though, aweful network.

[m419]

What is Orange thinking!

France Telecom the brand owners and network owners of 95% of the world have been in a financial mess for years, I doubt they would go ahead with the takeover of T-Mobile UK.

Furthermore, Orange home services formerly Freeserve and Wanadoo in the UK has been a flop due to slow development of its infrastructure and due to quad and tripple play providers.

Orange was to enter the pay-tv market and launch a similar service to BT Vision but that idea was thrown out of the window because it lost nearly 200,000 customers around the time and the cash flow dipped. Recently they launched Orange at home phone service, there are two levels of this,you can use it as a CPS service over a BT line or you can use the live box similar to BT's Homehub. I doubt this is catching on.

In Austrailia,Israel,India and a few other countries Hutchison Whampoa kept the Orange brand but leased it from France Telecom, they forced off 2G customers and when that was complete,they quit using the Orange brand and started using there own which inlcude '3' and 'Hutch'.

If 3 was to merge with T-Mobile, Hutchison will likely force everyone to upgrade there 2G phones to 3G or create a seperate customer base soley for 2G customers and call it Hutch or something. I doubt they will keep the T-Mobile brand. The whole process would take up to 5 years to complete.

One thing that Hutchison lacks in the UK and Europe is a fixed and Fibre optic telecoms infrastructure,in some parts of the world they have,but not here. In Hong Kong, Hutchison offer similar services to Virgin Media offering fibre optic cable internet to residential and business customers, they are of course ahead of the UK.

Why Hutchison sold Orange in the first place is just crazy! I mean it was a good brand and had a good 2G infrastructure,here in the UK, One2One now T-Mobile was Orange's direct competitor and was so behind Orange. perhaps they sold it off to make money to pay for 3G licences, Hutchison sold Orange in 1999 to Vodafone and then France Telecom took over in 2000 because of competition issues. Hutchison then began to build its 3G network in the UK and its 3G only network became active around November 2002,it was very undeveloped and had hardly any masts which is why nobody got reception! Now in 2009, the reception is much better although the network needs more masts in order for it to be a 100% 3G network as 3G signals dont travel as far. They have done well compared to One2one/T-Mobile which started in 1993 and only covered Greater London up until 1997 and then began to spread out, by 1999, it still had poor reception and even now T-Mobile's reception is just average outside London.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by m419

it still had poor reception and even now T-Mobile's reception is just average outside London.

Rubbish. It depends where you are. Around here it's the strongest network.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by m419

by 1999, it still had poor reception and even now T-Mobile's reception is just average outside London.

Wrong. I haven't conducted extensive tests, but I've been to quite a few towns outside London, both in England and Wales. In the 3 and a half years I was with Tmobile, I rarely lost 2g reception (unless I was in a tunnel or really in the sticks). OK, outside London or other major towns, I didn't get good 3g reception, but I don't with O2 either.

This is more than I can say for any of my friends who have three.

[haydnwalker]

We get good 3 and 2g reception here and we are MILES (150-ish) away from London! And we aren't even classed as an urban area really... as opposed to my O2 3g connection which is crap and drops to edge/gprs alot.

[altis]

When originally set up, the Vodafone and O2 networks used GSM-900 (900 MHz) whilst Orange and T-Mobile used GSM-1800 (1800 MHz). I think that, nowadays, Vodafone and O2 also have some GSM-1800 nodes.

The signals at 900MHz, being at a lower frequency, will go round corners and penetrate into buildings better than those at 1800MHz. But coverage will still depend heavily on the number and location of base stations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_ranges

Links to coverage maps / calculators:
http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coveragev...b/default.aspx
http://webmap.o2.co.uk/?Search=Search
http://coverage.orange.co.uk/uk/UKCoverageSearch.htm
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/c...eck/?ref=quick
http://www.three.co.uk/personal/help...age_/index.omp

[Russ]

I will never understand this misconception that T-Mobile supposedly have a poor signal compared to the other networks.

All comparison websites put all the networks at within a percent of each other when it comes to coverage. If ever T-Mobile come lowest then it's irrelevant to actual use as you are not going to notice a difference across the country of 1%.

[m419]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Rubbish. It depends where you are. Around here it's the strongest network.

Have you been down the south west such as Bristol,Devon and cornwall, it was a waste of time, and in portsmouth! My goodness! indoors it gave just one bar.

Originally Posted by Russ B

I will never understand this misconception that T-Mobile supposedly have a poor signal compared to the other networks.

All comparison websites put all the networks at within a percent of each other when it comes to coverage. If ever T-Mobile come lowest then it's irrelevant to actual use as you are not going to notice a difference across the country of 1%.

It's not a misconception at all. The percentages you speak of are population coverage. It's reasonably easy to get up to 90% population coverage simply by rigging masts up in all the cities and towns. Getting to 95% is trickier and after that, you have to fight hard for every percentage point increase because all that's left are large areas where few people live (but not necessarily places where few people visit).

So in terms of land area covered, that 1% difference between T-Mobile and their nearest rival is rather larger than you might think.