Reducing to 3 networks doesn't automatically make it bad. Austria only has 3 but they each have good levels of spectrum and a fairly equal market share I think. Price of an iPhone 6s with 6GB of data is £35/month on T-Mobile AT. You can £4 a month to that and get a new phone every year as well. I'd say that's pretty close to the pricing we have in the UK now with four networks.

A large number of European markets have 3, including Germany.

Well ok, I know nothing about this so I can't comment. I just get vibes it might not be a good idea.
As is usual, I am almost certainly wrong so don't listen to me and you won't go far wrong!

Bad idea. Someone doesn't know what they're doing.... oh dear.
At all costs Three should be getting that 1800 out to all masts.
Good balance between coverage and capacity.
It's common sense.
Epic fail!

True. Germany though isn't the model of cheapness haha. The same 16gb iPhone 6s I described above would cost £1700 over 24 months on Telekom with 10gb of data (they don't do 6gb), it's 90€/month for the first 12 months then 100€ for the 12 after.

As long as they keep the AYCE data add on for £20 on PAYG and as an option on contracted plans I don't think there will be a exodus of customers. 95% of consumers wouldn't give a FIG if they watched or read something on their phone via 3G, DC-HSDPA, 4G, or 10G!

Also, this 'Super Voice'/VoLTE/800Mhz network map looks highly in-accurate or that much of a low priority to be useless?!

Three aren't relying on that, networks have different strategies when it comes to deployment, Three invested very heavily in DC-HSPA and is rolling out, but doesn't have as big budget as some of the others and also isn't competing to be the fastest, just to be a low costs, high reliability network. There will be monthly improvements on an ongoing basis for 4G and as I understand it, they have plans for the next couple of years in terms of rollout.

Although the commission has up until April, there is likely to be a statement soon and are expecting some spectrum release to be part of any approval, as well as other conditions. Let's see if we get an update in the next week.

HWL decided that buying O2 from Telefonica was a good idea. Hence the 4G Wishlist for 2014 got chucked on the fire. If you are a bean counter then slowing down 4G roll out based on a possible future acquisition is a great idea. Heaven know O2 and Vodafone have been run by bean counters for many years and it hasn't done them any harm. Ok their data networks are years behind the likes of Three and EE but most customers wont know any better so who cares. Just think of all the money and hard work they have saved.

HWL and Telefonica would have thought at the time it was first mooted the EU will simply rubber stamp the deal like they had been doing up until the last year

I don't think we're at that stage yet. What we might see next week is the Commission spell out more clearly what their specific concerns are. This is known as a 'Statement of Objections.' It will then be for Hutch to see if they can come up with suitable remedies which sufficiently allay the concerns.

Whilst there's no doubt the whole deal has become a lot tougher with the new Commissioner especially since the 4 to 3 deal in Denmark was blocked, I think, on balance it probably will go ahead in some form.

There can't be any specific requirement to have 4 networks so you can't just look at Denmark. Each one has to be treated on its own merits. The biggest justification for the reduction in competition is investment. This has been a hard sell lately. However, Hutch have a far more convincing argument as given their size, they can argue that they can't compete effectively when the networks need large levels of investment as they do for the next few years. An ineffective Three is no longer a credible fourth player so we would effectively get to three networks by that route. This is totally different to Denmark where nobody thought the two players couldn't compete alone (they had a lot of sharing arrangements anyway so the investment story was very weak).

There's also the murkier world of tax. Basically a huge amount of value comes about from Three+O2 that doesn't exist in any other combination as Three have huge historic tax losses that would take them forever to use alone and O2 are the only serious tax payer (EE has been loss making until last year and Vodafone is well, Vodafone when it comes to tax). This means there's quite a lot of scope for Hutch to concede a lot and for the deal to still be worth it. Again totally different to Denmark. So we might end up with some kind of quasi fourth network being created (which would be more than an MVNO) to get it through.

It's hard to judge though as nobody knows quite how strong Margarethe Vestager's feelings on the subject are. The only certain thing is if anyone says it's either definitely going ahead or it will definitely be blocked then you can be sure they don't know what they are talking about.

See, that's why I said I didn't know what I was talking about......

I think that's a very fair post, nobody knows for sure yet, but I think the feeling is that it will get approval subject to spectrum release and MVNO creation or similar.

I believe Margerethe is Danish and that when the Danish merger came up there were some thoughts that she would be strict there because of her career in politics and wanting to be seen to be tough. However we should remember that there are many European countries including large ones like Germany that have 3 operators, also that the Danish merger wasn't refused, the operators pulled out because they didn't want to agree to lose so much spectrum.

As you point out, the question over the long-term viability of Three on it's own is a strong one too, and it is clear that Three are much more willing than the Danish operators to make concessions, as they are buying not merging and it's the network owner of a small network buying a bigger one to ensure a longer term future in the UK, something which the parent company sold assets in HK specifically to be able to do. More spectrum will be available in the future and some 2100Mhz can be re-purposed for 4G on both networks if needed in the future.

All reasons why I think it it'll get the go-ahead with conditions, that seems to be what some articles are saying recently, also that a statement is due too, which I expect will be next week now.

Yeah but to be fair he always does fair posts.
He's ja.
He knows what the **** he's talking about. *
Most of the rest of us just pretend and he tolerates it.... just..!




* I learn a lot though and that can only be a good thing....
Top Man!

I'm looking forward to 2100 being used for 4g fingers crossed, and hopefully the 800lte frequency they have with o2 being used for the voice network plus inside/rural coverage. A cap on the 800 date network is acceptable as long as we can make calls or even what's app calls!

Yeah coverage checker has really changed around me! Huge areas are now indoor, where before they were outdoor..

Also, a town near me suddenly has absolutely no service according to the map, where there was indoor before :S must be a mistake. (type Eglinton into coverage checker)

More network improvements on the 25th here...

Same for me in the Northern Lincs region also? What is this? Some vast increase power of transmission for 3g and 4g to help boost the signal.

Actually, in serious questions terms, why can't they turn up their strength a little, that way, improved coverage and less blackspots?

Does anyone else regularly check the Three coverage checker, and find it usually says "We're planning network improvements in your area on (date)", then you check after that date, the coverage map is the same, and you still don't get any better 4G signal.

It currently says "We're planning some network improvements in your area on 29 January 2016.", so I'll test a three sim after 29 January and see if I then get "Very good service" on 4G.

Yes, all the time. I used to get excited when I saw the "network improvements" message, but after watching dates come and go with no 4G upgrades I now just ignore them and wait for the coverage map to be updated.

The reality is that Three's 4g rollout got off to a good start, but in the last few months seems to have completely lost it's speed and is now falling well behind EE.

Ignore the network improvements, it may mean maintenance or anything. Just wait till you see extra coverage or updates on the map. Expect network improvements every few months, it could be anything and 99/100 it's not 4G etc, don't get your hopes up every time just because of those messages.

I had some listed in Three's website the other day. Turned out to be EE boosting their 4G backhaul. So now I get 100mbps on EE 4G and 20mbps on Three 3G. Still not enough to tempt me off unlimited data to be fair.

Yes, it appeared pretty much once a month last year, and three times in September alone. Still no 4G and 3G still refuses to go above 0.5mbps. No speed or coverage improvements have occurred here for at least the last 3 years. In comparison, Voda and O2 have blitzed the area with 4G.

I guess the "Network improvements" they talk about on the coverage checker, just involve hoovering out the fans and removing the dead spiders and wasps from within the equipment,

To be fair when they last did maintenance on my mast the speeds did increase, rarely go below around 20Mbps any more. More likely just upgrading backhaul from what i can tell.

Don't know if you remember but that's exactly what happened to my mast when EE 4G went live on the 18th of November.
2 days before Three were going on about maintenance.
No changes to Three but EE 4G then happened!!

How does the new 4G Voice and 800Mhz actually work as I'm slightly perplexed by it all.

According to their coverage map, the new service came to my area and produced a blanket indoor 4G signal for me. Upon seeing this I entered one of their shops in my local town, the salesman confirmed it, so I bought a SIM to try it out.

I proceeded to try it last night and there was no difference in the coverage I got - No 4G before hand, and still only variable 3G in my actually house?

Do I need to enable or download something for it to work? I have a compatible phone (S5).

As Three have set the 800mhz priority to lower than 3G, you will never use it unless you don't have a 3G signal. Make sure your S5 is up-to-date too (and also has to be 3 branded)