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Orange and T-Mobile UK to merge
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wavejockglw
07-09-2009
It looks like the UK's biggest mobile phone company will be created by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange according to press reports.

Vodafone and 02 have been negotiating to buy T-Mobile but it looks like France Telecom have won the deal and both T-Mobile and Orange will continue as separate brands in the UK but will share networks and back office fuctions. The combined company will have more than 30 million mobile customers in the UK.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/art...le-set-UK.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...UK-market.html

Looks like an official announcment is due tomorrow - Tuesday 8th September 2009.
prking
08-09-2009
This must be a case of two companies who have struggled somewhat (especially T-Mobile) seeing cost savings.

However, are they really going to compete against each other for customers? And what are the competition implications of the resulting 3/T-Mobile/Orange 3G network share?
Ricardodaforce
08-09-2009
I wonder how it will be branded. Orange I would guess.
Running Water
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“I wonder how it will be branded. Orange I would guess.”

T'Orange
mossy2103
08-09-2009
The Business guy on Sky News this morning seemed to think that, as Orange is the larger company and Deutsche TeleKom (who own T-Mobile) wanted to withdraw from the UK mobile phone market, Orange would in effect be taking over T-Mobile and would then be the dominant party.

This is on the BBC News site:

Quote:
“Both brands will remain separate for the first 18 months after the deal is completed while branding is reviewed.

Orange chief executive Tom Alexander will lead the new company, with T-Mobile's UK boss Richard Moat as chief operating officer.

Orange employs 12,500 people in the UK, while T-Mobile has UK workforce of 6,500.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8243226.stm
chinchin
08-09-2009
Go with Virgin, better customer service and cheaper calls. I found Orange to be very poor which is why I switched to T-Mobile, then they started charging to retrieve voicemail messages so I switched to Virgin Pay as you Go!
bona-v
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by Running Water:
“T'Orange ”

Can I offer you Orange-T?
Running Water
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by bona-v:
“Can I offer you Orange-T?”

Hmmm... this is getting interesting!

How about T-Morange? (come to think of it, sounds like 'Team Orange' !! )
bona-v
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by chinchin:
“Go with Virgin, better customer service and cheaper calls. I found Orange to be very poor which is why I switched to T-Mobile, then they started charging to retrieve voicemail messages so I switched to Virgin Pay as you Go! ”

But how will it affect Virgin? Virgin is a virtual network using T-Mobile network.

Must admit, if T-Mobile and Orange combine networks, it will be better in my area as T-Mobile is very weak for me locally. Not that it matters too much personally as I have now switched to Orange.

T-Mobile and 121 as they were, have always seemed to be the poor relative in the UK. They historically have offered the best tarriffs, ie more free minutes and texts, used to have free voicemail, but have never seemed to attract the amount of customers they need to push forward.

But the merger seems to be a cost saving excercise and it seems they will still compete against each other.
chinchin
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by bona-v:
“But how will it affect Virgin? Virgin is a virtual network using T-Mobile network.

Must admit, if T-Mobile and Orange combine networks, it will be better in my area as T-Mobile is very weak for me locally. Not that it matters too much personally as I have now switched to Orange.

T-Mobile and 121 as they were, have always seemed to be the poor relative in the UK. They historically have offered the best tarriffs, ie more free minutes and texts, used to have free voicemail, but have never seemed to attract the amount of customers they need to push forward.

But the merger seems to be a cost saving excercise and it seems they will still compete against each other.”

They are a virtual nework of T-Mobile, but they set their own prices and have their own customer services (based in South Africa)
bona-v
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by Running Water:
“Hmmm... this is getting interesting!

How about T-Morange? (come to think of it, sounds like 'Team Orange' !! )”

You need to copyright that one. It has a nice ring (no pun intended) to it. I can see it on the boardroom and call centre walls all over the merged company.
bona-v
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by chinchin:
“They are a virtual nework of T-Mobile, but they set their own prices and have their own customer services (based in South Africa) ”

I realise that, but I mentioned it as the business analyst on Sky News specifically mentioned that they do not know how it will affect Virgin. So either the guy is just waffling, as the agreement with Virgin is historic or he is aware of a specific part of the merger.
chinchin
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by bona-v:
“I realise that, but I mentioned it as the business analyst on Sky News specifically mentioned that they do not know how it will affect Virgin. So either the guy is just waffling, as the agreement with Virgin is historic or he is aware of a specific part of the merger.”

They will probably get their spectrum allocation from the bigger Orange concern and have to up their prices
mrrobward
08-09-2009
According to BBC, its going to take 18 months to do a branding review. I have a simple answer, oT . Just like o2, get the people thinking its o2 and lock them into a contract
chinchin
08-09-2009
Remember this prediction. It will be Orange and the T-Mobile name will disappear!
I love Ellie
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“I wonder how it will be branded. Orange I would guess.”

Orabile.
chris20
08-09-2009
this will be very good as they will be the only network to give you fantastic signal if virgin keep there deal with them they will have excellent coverage to.
Appleseed
08-09-2009
I'd prefer that they keep the T-Mobile name if they were going to keep either. T-Mobile sounds more like what the business is all about, whereas Orange is just a colour.
bubbsy
08-09-2009
T Mobile has a lengthy press release on their site (8 Sep)

Quote:
“The T-Mobile UK and Orange UK brands will be maintained separately for 18 months after completion of the transaction. During that period management will review branding alternatives for the joint venture and will develop a new branding strategy recommendation for shareholder approval.

Prior to the signing, which is expected to be end of October, both Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom will undertake confirmatory due diligence and will complete the definitive documentation. The final agreement is subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom and the Board of Directors of France Telecom, and the completion of an agreed transaction would be conditional on approval by the relevant competition authorities.”

Orange has the same press release.
iRuss
08-09-2009
It'll be a new brand entirely to indicate it's the new big kid on the block. Prior to the new launch there'll be a 6 month PR campaign involving pretentious adverts thought out in an office tower block by men with pony-tails who drink water out of little green bottles.
M. Tourette
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by chinchin:
“They will probably get their spectrum allocation from the bigger Orange concern and have to up their prices ”

So in other words best not to switch to Virgin as you suggested earlier
TheSoulBrother
08-09-2009
Inevitably going to retain the Orange branding.
M. Tourette
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by Appleseed:
“I'd prefer that they keep the T-Mobile name if they were going to keep either. T-Mobile sounds more like what the business is all about, whereas Orange is just a colour.”

I think you might find it is a fruit as well.
Personally I would rather the name Orange be used instead of Tmobile - which is just awkward in it's sound.


I just hope this can sway Apple to join in with Orange in the UK now so it's customers can get iPhones.
gary77
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by TheSoulBrother:
“Inevitably going to retain the Orange branding.”

Wish they would get rid of the branding on there phones, one of the reasons why i left Orange afew years ago.
TheBigM
08-09-2009
Originally Posted by M. Tourette:
“
I just hope this can sway Apple to join in with Orange in the UK now so it's customers can get iPhones.”

I guess you haven't heard the saying about apples and oranges? Along the lines of chalk and cheese?

I would have thought a three-way merger of Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile and 3 would be best.

3 is the biggest innovator of them all but struggles due to no 2G coverage (hence the dropped call issue) and just too small. T-Mobile is small too but together they might be big enough. Virgin has had the best customer service reputation for many years now but being an MVNO suffers from higher call charges while not receiving any termination charge income.

If they merged could revamp Three's customer service with that of Virgin while Virgin would have the marketing too (as we move into 4G Three's brand name means less too). Throwing T-Mobile into the mix adds weight and makes the transition more seamless for customers of all given a) virgin customers use T-Mobile operator codes and Three and T-Mobile have a mast-sharing agreement.
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