Originally Posted by Appleseed:
“Virgin are as completely separate company as far as Orange are concerned, but that's not to say that when full and seamless roaming is in place MVNOs won't be invited to negotiate to 'join in'.”
It won't be roaming, it will be a full network integration.
Basically here's the story:
3 and T-mobile decided to build out the biggest 3G network in the UK and run it under a separate company called MBUK. The new network has taken 18 months to build and has around 12,000 cell sites, built by Nokia Siemens. It is built with mobile broadband and data in mind, and has been built as an upgradable network, so that extra capacity can be added and faster speeds as needed.
At the start of the project 3 knew that the owners of T-mobile wanted to exit the UK, it's been something that has been known for nearly 2 years.
When Orange bought T-mobile there were conditions put in place that 3 must be protected to enable effective competition.
Orange will be joining MBUK, Orange will be decommissioning the vast majority of their cell sites , less than 1 in 3 Orange cells will remain in operation.
Of course all parties will continue to invest in MBUK as well.