Originally Posted by wavejockglw:
“Some folks just never give up spinning”
Words that you should listen to and take on board, I think.
Originally Posted by wavejockglw:
“3 were first to market 3G and were hopeless for years. They were the last company to embrace the idea of mobile Internet and now they claim to the network built for the Internet. They have learned from their past errors and repositioned themselves to achieve some growth on the back of the consumer uptake of smartphones.”
Not wrong there - they thought a walled garden would be all people would ever want, and that they'd make money from selling apps and ringtones and the crap that people wanted back then.
However how is it a "claim" that they have the best network for the internet? They have the broadest 3G coverage, have continuously made investments in improving on their already great coverage and capacity, first to start deploying various HSPA revisions, and they have incredibly sensible data pricing (I'm happy to pay £12 for 3 months' 3G on my laptop just in case I need it).
At the risk of sounding like you, they do top surveys by the likes of YouGov for mobile broadband for coverage, speeds, reliability etc.
http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Awar...bile_Broadband
Originally Posted by wavejockglw:
“ I'm sure O2 and Vodafone won't be slow to respond as the networks increase their focus on data services.”
Smartphones have been around for many years, the "post-iPhone" era has been with us for five years. Networks such as 3 have kept up with the times, as you admit, and yet O2 and Vodafone seem to think EDGE is all anyone ever needs. O2 only bothers to improve 3G coverage when OFCOM whips them in to doing it.
Originally Posted by wavejockglw:
“Of course there will be folks on here who continually point to the smart business choice O2 made by not investing fortunes in 2100MHz UMTS as a negative re coverage but in reality with 900MHz now available and with a growing user base and high penetration of smartphones O2s strategy has proved to be the one with the most foresight.”
900MHz 3G has done bugger all around here, and I live in a rural area. There's still just about zero O2 3G coverage (I can get a tiny signal if I use aerobatics to position the phone, and that's probably because I live not far from a trunk road). Meanwhile my EE phone is constantly on 3G no matter what rural backroad I use and that's with that horrible nasty 2100MHz spectrum.
Originally Posted by wavejockglw:
“The point is that despite some who seem to have their needle stuck in the same groove networks change and if 3 can make improvements so can others and it is naïve to suggest otherwise considering the very competitive market that all the UK networks have to try and make a return from.”
Of course, but O2 and Vodafone
haven't changed and they've had years to show this. They have consistently done the bare minimum, urban-targeted rollout with mostly disappointing results. 3 are highly talked about because they really have reinvented themselves and got things done. There's no vendetta against any network, as it is not a vendetta to state the facts regarding a particular network's rollout and attitude to investment, and in O2's case there is a mountain of evidence to back it up.
Originally Posted by wavejockglw:
“I'd bet that O2 and Vodafone will make huge efforts to establish LTE as soon as they are licenced, so confident that I'd buy shares in O2 if Telefonica decide to offer that opportunity in the near future.”
The way you go on about it I'm surprised if you don't already own shares in Telefonica.