Doesn't 02 have more than 22 million customers in the UK and setting aside the merged Orange and T-Mobile networks it is the most popular mobile network in the UK and has been for many years.

They have just won a 10,000 connection deal with BSkyB and provide Tesco with service for their 2.5+ million virtual network.

I don't think 02 will be too worried about losing a few low earning subscribers in the position they have presently.

Tesco remember is 1/2 owned by O2, I don't really see the significance of the BSkyB deal as it's just like the other networks who provide business services to large customers, 10,000 isn't a particularly large number either when you talk in terms of networks having X million customers.

They are losing net customers in the latest results though, 143,000 net losses in Q2, Other networks will happily soak up those customers who leave, Three for example is now the fastest growing network in the UK according to the Ofcom Market Report 2011.

It's a dangerous game to "not be too worried about losing a few low earning subscribers", IF that trend were to continue O2 would lose over 1/2 million customers a year, of course it could accelerate too.

When it comes to 4G in just a couple of years there may be a more level playing field between operators too. In just 5 or 7 years things could change very significantly, arrogance over 'losing a few here or there' is a very silly trap to fall in to, because your competitors will gladly soak up those customers - and are at the moment as people leave O2.

In market share terms O2 has 26%, Voda 20% EE 35% so if they keep losing customers it won't be long before they are overtaken.

I really don't think 02 has a great deal to loose sleep over.

They were always going to loose some customers as the iPhone adopters who joined when it was exclusive seek new deals.

3 are not on the same playing field as 02 or Vodafone who each have about or more than four times what 3's CEO quoted as their customer base lately.

If the spectrum auction does not favour 3 then it's very likely Hutchison will cut their (£11 Billion) loss and get what they can for their UK business from either Telefonica or Vodafone.

3 will probably go down in history as the UK's biggest ever loss maker in terms of investment and eventual return.

Ahh the anti Three negativity gotta love you for it.

The Ofcom report highlights some other interesting figures.

3UK's growth in revenue up by 9.7% in 2010, in contrast to O2 which was 3.4% and Vodafone at 2%.

3UK's mobile connections for 2010 up 12.4%, O2's 8.4%

3UK has 5.6 million 3G connections in 2010 (higher now), O2 7.9 million 3G connections (I wonder if 3UK has more than O2 now?), it's only fair to compare like for like right? as a share of the 3G market. Doesn't look too shabby now does it, only 2.5 million difference between O2 and Three if you compare 3G connections, which is the only fair way to do it since Three don't connect any 2G customers.

I'm sure you're right - my recent experience of their customer service leads me to agree - customers spending sub £40pcm are not worth retaining.

If o2 were that amazing, people wouldn't leave them for other networks when the exclusivity ended. I was an o2 subscriber for a number of years, but left due to lacklustre 3G coverage. I cannot fault o2's customer services though.

As it stands at the moment o2 and vodafone have an advantage handed to them by allowing UMTS on 900MHz. 3 is complaining this is devaluing their 3G spectrum.

Where is the link to this Ofcom report?

I very much doubt if only 7 million of 02's 22 million subscriber base are on GSM only considering 02's handset range has been mainly 3G for a long time.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...2011_FINAL.pdf

Page 293:

Interesting but the text explains that: "Around four in ten UK mobile connections (40.9%) were 3G-enabled at the end of 2010, compared to just 4.6% five years previously (Figure 5.56). The merger of Orange and T-Mobile meant that Everything Everywhere had the most 3G connections (12.6 million, a 38.0% share). O2 had 7.9 million 3G connections, and 3G-only operator 3UK (the largest 3G provider before 2009) now has the smallest share, with an estimated 5.6 million 3G connections."

I bet 02 and Vodafone have been vastly increasing their 3G subscribers in 2011.

3 have also grown but are the only network concerned and warning about capacity issues in 2012. Not good news if you seek a 24 month deal on a smartphone or data dongle at the end of 2011.

Ahh I see rather than going, oh yes you are right you've gone on the defensive again and stated bringing up the same old lines that you repeatedly post over and over as I demonstrated earlier:
I could quote all the times you've posted about that capacity story, it's been posted repeatedly. You've only brought that up because all the points I posted from the Ofcom report which you doubted and said you could believe were proven as correct and the strength of my argument against yours, you needed to find something to come back with, rather than just accept it's correct and supported the facts.

It's not a competition, it's a discussion, nobody wins or loses. I'm just countering your negativity and some of the unfounded (in my opinion) negative posts like post #28 which were not supported by anything tangible and objective .

No sign of the 3UK 10,000 account business customer or the significant MVNO partner then?

Thought not.

Major buinesses carefully research what they rely on especially when they are looking to make money and need reliable communications.

He does have a point.

Those figures show that between 2005 and 2010 O2's 3G customer base has increased by 2533% while 3's 3G customer base has only increased by 60% over the same time period.

It also shows that 3 have gone from being the largest 3G provider, been overtaken by everyone, and have ended up as the smallest 3G provider.


In 2005, 3 had 12 times as many 3G customers as O2. Now they have less than O2.

That does not bode well for your earlier pondering as to whether or not 3 now have more 3G customers than O2 (again). The answer is clearly no. They had more, but stood still, so everyone has overtaken them.

They warned about this to try and get OFCOM moving. As it stands 3 seem to be quicker at responding to capacity issues than the other operators.

At my home address only T-Mobile is suffering. O2 is very inconsistant and 3 is usually blindingly quick. So yea total crap... don't sign up.

I've no idea WHAT you are on about? I never said there was an MVNO partner.

Three don't do a lot of business accounts, O2 and Vodafone are VERY big in those areas and I don't see that changing for a while.

Talking of reliable, do you remember the 6 wide area data outages in 6 months a couple of years back that were widely reported. They had a very bad time of it back then but seem to have improved a lot recently.

It doesn't really mean much other than people who have upgraded have done so for 3g handsets, as most are these days.

I would have thought though that O2's huge 3G customer boost between 2005-10 would most likely be down to customers upgrading from older phones to 3G enabled phones? Not new customers. Same for the other networks, whereas Three is just adding new 3G customers, not upgrades.

I'm not sure if i'm coming across right, but in my head i know what i mean!

That is a fact.

Well stated and the 4 GSM network operators have millions of customers to upgrade and convert to 3G.

Exactly. People are generally reluctant to change providers. I know tens of people on o2 who swear that they are the best, having tried no one else.

Then they wonder why I can load pages quickly while they crawl on GPRS

Doh! of course!!, they launched 3G before anyone else and were obviously the biggest 3G seller, even when they had very few customers. Of course when the others started selling 3G they could upgrade their already massive customer bases.

We know they are 5th, but they are the newest. They are however the market leader on mobile broadband. It's easy to up sell existing customers to 3G and that's what the others did, but with only 2.5 million 3G customers difference between 3UK and O2 that's not an awful lot. 3UK is now the fastest growing network too, whilst O2 lost 143,000 customers in just 1 quarter this year.

Quite right, but those upgrading customers don't have to stay on O2. They choose to. They could move to 3 or any other provider if they wanted.

3 have had some MVNO partners but none of any significance.

Regards businesses, why have 3 been so poor at attracting big clients from the others? They seem to be able to slash prices and offer deals to private consumers so why the reluctance of businesses to take advantage of similar deals?

Maybe because businesses are more thorough in terms of their research and demand a higher level of proven reliabiliy?

Could there be another reason? (It can't be that 3UK could not compete on price surely?)

And they are!, O2 lost 143,000 in 1 quarter. Three gained more than that in the same quarter!

Or maybe that's not where they want to be? some ISPs target business and some consumer etc

You have nothing to back up your statements it's just all subjective with the usual agenda thrown in. Every single post about Three you post is negative pretty much, yet they can't be crap at everything, and the exact same with O2.

Indeed and Hutchison quoted around 7.5 million 3 UK customers in their last report and their incoming CEO then stated they had around 5 million.

Thats a pretty big difference!

One has to wonder what to believe.

I am inclined to believe the CEO but does that mean they lost 2.5 million in less than a year?

Do we have some reference to the 3 UK business strategy that confirms this as I believe 3UK have invested a substantial amount of money and effort trying to bulid a business portfolio?

http://www.three.co.uk/Business?inti...elink_business