T-Mobile UK and Orange to form massive joint venture
Our pals across the pond are going to be facing some changes in the coming months as Deutsch Telekom and France Telecom are planning a massive merger in the UK. The companies are reportedly preparing to combine T-Mobile UK and Orange to form what will become the largest telco on the island, assuming the joint venture is approved by antitrust regulators. The deal is expected to be inked toward the end of October, giving the parties involved plenty of time to iron out details in the interim. The bright side for consumers, we suppose, is expanded network coverage — the downside of course being the fact that the two carriers will no longer be competing for business. So, what do our UK friends think?
Thanks, Roger A!
Got a bad feeling about this one. Whilst Orange and T-Mobile (two of the three weakest UK players) are arguing about who should run the joint venture and how, market leaders Vodafone and O2 will rush in and grab their most profitable customers.
Would have been better for Deutsche Telekom to take Voda or O2 cash and get out of the kitchen, but that would have meant taking a second massive capital writedown, and the Germans chose to say Nein.
Well, I guess it was their call.
I wonder how voice and sms will be handled in respect with the upcoming LTE technology now. T-Mo supports VoLGA while Orange supports circuit switch fallback.
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=176867
The synergies of this deal ought to be a boost for DT’s US division.
T-Mobile USA is already rumored to be on the receiving end of billions of Euros or network expansion for future growth from their parent company.
Hey guys! This not just about customer service and satisfaction. This about MONEY! A lot of MONEY! Lots of staff members will be made redundant. Investment for future equipment, network build out, negotiation leverage with handset providers, and rduced marketing costs will be shared, enhanced and reduced substantially. For me as an investor it was a very good day: the respective stocks were up significantly and the dollars was down!
“Roger A”?!? I sent this in, and before anyone else knew about it!
While the loss of competition between the two carriers is a valid concern, this venture would allow them to pull their resources and compete with O2, who are the UKs exclusive iPhone carrier and are about to pick up the Palm Pre (exclusively). A single large carrier like this should be able to work to pull in some unique high end phones of their own, shouldn’t they?
no if only tmo usa would buy out ATT
02 are no longer exclusive iPhone carriers as Orange will also be providing the iPhone by the end of ‘09.
Orange have released the Moto Dext and the LG BL4. The Dext is the first in a long line of Android phones due for release over the coming months and looks like Motorola has finally raised it’s game in the smartphone market partnering with the likes of Verizon in the US and Google (look up the motorola Droid). If this is anything to go by, we could expect to see a number of very interesting handsets from Orange in the near future.