MSE News: Orange and T-Mobile to merge

Former_MSE_Guy

See the MSE News Story:

"Orange and T-Mobile are to merge, to create a mobile phone giant with around 28.4 million customers, it was announced today.

Orange, owned by France Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom-run T-Mobile confirmed they were in "exclusive" talks to join forces in a 50/50 joint venture ..."

Read the full story:
Orange and T-Mobile to merge




This topic was already being discussed before the news story was written. Thanks to daveboy for the original post

daveboy

I've woken up this morning to be greeted by news I didn't want to see, only weeks after the farce which was their attempt at increasing out of contract minimum call charges.

I got out of a contract with Orange and was glad to get away.

Now I learn that, after going to T-Mobile on PAYG, that they are to merge with the most useless company ever, Orange.

So, I wonder what this will do to competition and prices. Supposedly one less provider unless I am mistaken.

Why do this to us Orange? I'm so tempted now to ring up for a PAC code and go to O2....it'd be worth paying to unlock my phone just to get away from these customer hating people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8243226.stm

Reeves

NOOOOOOO!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

suppose I better order a white HTC Hero on T-mobile while I still can before Orange get their hands on it and fill it full of their bloated "****"

:mad::mad::mad:

virgo17

daveboy wrote: »

So, I wonder what this will do to competition and prices. Supposedly one less provider unless I am mistaken.

They will run the two brands separately for 18 months and then it's anyones guess.

I'm sure you are right that this means less competition.

OneADay

Less jobs, less competition, my contract with t-mobile is only for 12 months (will be off after that).

Increasingly the UK is becoming the US system - soon they will ask us to pay for mobiles to enter any contract.

grenny

Orange and T-Mobile said their deal would "bring expanded network coverage, better network quality and improved customer services."

Who cares? What about cheaper prices??

RenegMC

grenny wrote: »

Orange and T-Mobile said their deal would "bring expanded network coverage, better network quality and improved customer services."

Who cares? What about cheaper prices??

I don't think there can be cheaper prices - at least not significant ones anyway. It'll be a tradeoff between bigger cost cuts and cheaper deals.

I rekon the most likely scenario is that prices will rise with the level of inflation (there or there abouts) as that proves an easy place to hide and raise prices, whilst cutting costs... Overall? General price rises, and a cut in their costs = More profit for them!

movilogo

Both Tmobile & Orange are crap. In my work, T-mobile doesn't even have a signal!! Vodafone, O2 etc. works fine.

wizk1

It's the same story again and again. Companies merge, but the only person who will lose out/be no better off, would be Joe Public. Mergers satisfy the desires of the bosses and the shareholders. Not the consumers who make them what they are in the first place. I have no hopes for this merger.

jebervic

less competition should lead to higher prices in my opinion.

cw18

Not sure what to make of this in terms of impact on me

I've been with T-Mobile for almost 19 months, which consists of an expensive 18 month contract (suited me when I took it out, but has been painful since being made redundant 9 months into it!) which finished mid-August, followed by the start of a different - much cheaper and well discounted - 18 month contract.

I had intended to revert to my previous O2 PAYG last month, but the offer T-Mobile made me isn't much dearer than I anticipated having to load on a PAYG phone - plus has the added security of not running out of credit if I have major car problems in the middle of nowhere (the only times I've ever - in 11 years of owning a mobile - really used it for more than a minute or two at a time).

They say "their merger plans – due to be formally signed by the end of October – will see both brands remain separate for the first 18 months after completion of the deal while branding alternatives for the joint venture are reviewed.", so this runs until April 2011 - but my contract ends in February 2011.

So I guess I'm going to have to do my research at the point much more extensively - and be really careful that if I stay with T-Mobile that I know exactly what I'm locking into !!!!



My daughter is with Orange - I think she's about 8 months into a month contract with them - but already has plans to change to O2 when it expires, as most of her friends are on that network.