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Telefonica looking in to putting O2 up for sale or floating it
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Everything Goes
05-09-2016
Telefonica are looking into the possibility of selling or floating O2 to reduce their £41 Billion debt pile. A decision will be taken in the coming weeks. As Wavejock used to say O2 is the jewel in the crown of Telefonica

Sales at O2 UK fell by 8.9 per cent to €3.46bn (£2.9bn) for the first half of the year, as customers opted to hang on to their old handsets rather than upgrade.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09...t_o2_for_sale/
jonmorris
06-09-2016
Not good news for carriers, but it IS nice to hear that people are hanging on to handsets for longer. For most people there's little need to upgrade if you buy the right device to begin with.

SIM only FTW!
Resonance
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“Not good news for carriers, but it IS nice to hear that people are hanging on to handsets for longer. For most people there's little need to upgrade if you buy the right device to begin with.

SIM only FTW!”

I did sim only for the first time this year. My Galaxy S5 is perfectly adequate for my needs, so held onto it, ported my number to BT and am now paying £5/month instead of about £30 that I was paying to EE. I'll re-evaluate in a year or so.
Stereo Steve
06-09-2016
There is little point upgrading from your 6310i if you are on O2 anyway as you'll have 2G only for most of the UK.
gomezz
06-09-2016
Not in my experience.
jonmorris
06-09-2016
I see 4G in plenty of places now, but O2 is still a network that often gives me 'network communication issues' when doing speed tests.

By and large, the improvement over the last two years has been significant.
Zebb
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“Not good news for carriers, but it IS nice to hear that people are hanging on to handsets for longer. For most people there's little need to upgrade if you buy the right device to begin with.

SIM only FTW!”


Article about replacing phones.

Sony leading the way on battery charging.
Stereo Steve
06-09-2016
It was a little tongue in cheek but still valid I think for a whole lot of people. I appreciate that things are now moving fast and about time. Just bought my boy an O2 (Tesco) Nokia 130 as he starts big school this week and as I was walking him out to the bus had to use it to call home and say I had forgotten to make packed lunch for middle son as my psh, brand new EE iPhone SE showed No Service.

Come on EE. Where is this 800? Might need a 130 on O2 myself for emergencies. Bah.
jonmorris
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by Zebb:
“Article about replacing phones.

Sony leading the way on battery charging.”

I saw that shown at IFA, but I have a feeling people would actually rather have faster charging even at the expense of battery longevity.

I can well believe that in a year or so from now, Sony will reluctantly jump on the bandwagon for faster charging.

Sony also didn't get very far when it put a 4K screen on a phone. But at least that was a separate phone so you had the choice.
RileyM
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by Stereo Steve:
“There is little point upgrading from your 6310i if you are on O2 anyway as you'll have 2G only for most of the UK.”

I'm not trying to be wavejack here, but are these people still slating O2 left right and centre even O2 customers now?

As an O2 customer, i must say I was close to ditching, but their network upgrades seems to be going rather well. Coverage and speeds have increased significantly over the last 12 months, to a point where I'm now more than happy. Very often I now get even better coverage (signal strength and speed) than on my work EE device.

Granted coverage may still be poor in some areas, i do think these general blanket statements are harsh.
Aye Up
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by RileyM:
“I'm not trying to be wavejack here, but are these people still slating O2 left right and centre even O2 customers now?

As an O2 customer, i must say I was close to ditching, but their network upgrades seems to be going rather well. Coverage and speeds have increased significantly over the last 12 months, to a point where I'm now more than happy. Very often I now get even better coverage (signal strength and speed) than on my work EE device.

Granted coverage may still be poor in some areas, i do think these general blanket statements are harsh.”

BIB I think that maybe the reality of any network, there will always be not spots and such like. It is generally thought on here O2 seems to be doing a better job of upgrading the half of the country they are responsible for under their JV (CTIL) with Vodafone. Credit to them, they are making the most of the available spectrum they have and starting adding 4G1800 in many places and even some 4G2100 too. O2 and Vodafone know they have an awful lot of catching up to do and they are getting there, EE had a nearly 1 year head start.

Vodafone has improved immeasurably in the areas I frequent, that said they are having problems with 4G in my area at the moment. I think the key thing in respect of O2 and VF is they are noticeably improving, where as the relative minnow in the market sadly isn't (comparatively). The end of 2017 should mean the big three networks are broadly parallel and coverage should be the same in most places.
Stereo Steve
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by RileyM:
“I'm not trying to be wavejack here, but are these people still slating O2 left right and centre even O2 customers now?

As an O2 customer, i must say I was close to ditching, but their network upgrades seems to be going rather well. Coverage and speeds have increased significantly over the last 12 months, to a point where I'm now more than happy. Very often I now get even better coverage (signal strength and speed) than on my work EE device.

Granted coverage may still be poor in some areas, i do think these general blanket statements are harsh.”

Certainly down here in the South West it's still pretty bad. O2 state more 3G coverage but it's 3G900 and simply doesn't work for data. It just doesn't. But it looks pretty on the map. I am now an O2 customer through Tesco as my boy needs a phone which rings and texts anywhere and VO2 cannot yet be beaten for that down here. If EE roll out 800 properly that may change but not for cheap PAYG phones for a good while.

I agree that the end of 2017 and into 2018 will show a more general 4G covering for all networks as VO2 are putting in the effort finally.
No-One
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by Stereo Steve:
“Certainly down here in the South West it's still pretty bad. O2 state more 3G coverage but it's 3G900 and simply doesn't work for data. It just doesn't. But it looks pretty on the map.”

It's the same around here. O2 have a little 3G900 in the middle of the town. The rest of the county is 2G only. Compare that to EE who have complete blanket 3G coverage and at least 80% of the county covered with 4G. Around here we refer to O2 as "oh dear".
interactiv-uk
06-09-2016
I agree the West coast (VF area) isn't great but it's a different story all together in the North East and East of the country in general - continuous 4G in most towns and villages as well as the A1 and East Coast Main Line.. A great improvement on this time last year.
CheshireBumpkin
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by RileyM:
“I'm not trying to be wavejack here, but are these people still slating O2 left right and centre even O2 customers now?

As an O2 customer, i must say I was close to ditching, but their network upgrades seems to be going rather well. Coverage and speeds have increased significantly over the last 12 months, to a point where I'm now more than happy. Very often I now get even better coverage (signal strength and speed) than on my work EE device.

Granted coverage may still be poor in some areas, i do think these general blanket statements are harsh.”

I was about to say that all the tales of woe seems to come from the East until I saw the post from Ely! O2 are rock-solid for 2G voice here in South Cheshire / North Shropshire, but really don't provide any usable 3G access to speak of. 4G would be sorcery to O2 users in the area.
CheshireBumpkin
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by interactiv-uk:
“I agree the West coast (VF area) isn't great but it's a different story all together in the North East and East of the country in general - continuous 4G in most towns and villages as well as the A1 and East Coast Main Line.. A great improvement on this time last year.”

Genuine question - why are Vodafone so useless when it comes to upgrading sites compared to O2?
Richard_T
06-09-2016
Be interesting to see if Hutchison have another go, this time trying the same model they used in Italy with Wind Italia in allowing a new entrant into the market ( there fore keeping four operators )
Thine Wonk
06-09-2016
Who is big enough to buy O2 though, the number of potential companies with £9BN in the bank who have the experience to enter such a highly regulated and specialist market are small. You could count them on your fingers, and then you have to rule out the ones who can't buy it for competition reasons.

China mobile only operates in Asia, Vodafone can't as they are already in the market, Airtel possible, but unlikely, Telenor unlikely

I wonder if Orange (France Telecom) or T-mobile Deutsche Telekom would now they've sold EE to BT?

Virgin Media too big now Liberty surely, Sky unlikely there would be too much fuss.

They are going to struggle to find buyers I think.
moox
06-09-2016
Liberty Global (Virgin Media, UPC etc) might if they can't get someone like Vodafone. Or Sky, of course

I don't think LG will have much of a competition issue - sure, there's Virgin Mobile, but that's just an MVNO (albeit a large one)
Thine Wonk
06-09-2016
True I guess, I'm bitter that the whole communications market isn't taken into consideration properly when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. I think it is extremely important what other communications companies are owned by a potential buyer or in a merger, and that the market as a whole should be assessed, not just mobile. Products are cross sold, linked, multi-played and mobile relies on fixed line integration, backhaul etc. all areas where market manipulation can happen and conflict of interests for companies vs doing what's best for the consumer.

However that seems a minority view here, I appreciate that.
interactiv-uk
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by Thine Wonk:
“Who is big enough to buy O2 though, the number of potential companies with £9BN in the bank who have the experience to enter such a highly regulated and specialist market are small. You could count them on your fingers, and then you have to rule out the ones who can't buy it for competition reasons.

China mobile only operates in Asia, Vodafone can't as they are already in the market, Airtel possible, but unlikely, Telenor unlikely

I wonder if Orange (France Telecom) or T-mobile Deutsche Telekom would now they've sold EE to BT?

Virgin Media too big now Liberty surely, Sky unlikely there would be too much fuss.

They are going to struggle to find buyers I think.”

That would be interesting in the market.. BT sell BTCellnet as O2, Orange and T-Mobile become EE which is bought by BT.. Meanwhile Orange buy O2 and rebrand as Orange again... 😝
Thine Wonk
06-09-2016
It could happen!
Thine Wonk
06-09-2016
Originally Posted by RileyM:
“I'm not trying to be wavejack here, but are these people still slating O2 left right and centre even O2 customers now?

As an O2 customer, i must say I was close to ditching, but their network upgrades seems to be going rather well. Coverage and speeds have increased significantly over the last 12 months, to a point where I'm now more than happy. Very often I now get even better coverage (signal strength and speed) than on my work EE device.

Granted coverage may still be poor in some areas, i do think these general blanket statements are harsh.”

Published today

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09...etrics_survey/

Quote:
“O2 came fourth in the overall rankings, behind Vodafone, finishing last for speed, data speed, call and text performance, and it duly earns a telling-off for not investing in LTE:

The gaps in the scoring between O2’s performances and those of the leaders in the holistic categories of overall performance, network reliability, and network speed in each nation were generally wide and remained relatively consistent across both second-half 2015 testing and first-half 2016 testing, suggesting that O2 simply doesn’t yet have a widespread 4G footprint beyond metro areas.”

Gigabit
06-09-2016
The problem as always, is that these studies don't take into account every location.

It's great that EE have the best network but I have to use WiFi calling at home. Vodafone and O2 I can use the cellular network.
errea
08-09-2016
Vodafone / O2 have an advantage in 900 MHz 2G/3G
It might not be fast but it works where 1800/2100/2600 MHz doesn't reach.

Only when 800 MHz is widely deployed for voice will this change.


Originally Posted by Gigabit:
“The problem as always, is that these studies don't take into account every location.

It's great that EE have the best network but I have to use WiFi calling at home. Vodafone and O2 I can use the cellular network.”

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