The European Commission has decided it doesn't mind the crass splicing of pink (okay,
magenta) and orange, and has therefore provided its tastefully hued green light to the
UK merger of the two mobile operators. Once the transaction is completed this Spring, we'll still be looking at two delineated entities on the consumer market, but there'll be one back office and one consolidated network servicing the two brands. That'll remain the case for at least the next 18 months, when the joint venture between Deutsche Telecom and France Telecom, the respective parent companies of T-Mobile and Orange, will likely complete the process by rebranding itself into one entity. The press announcement is littered with vague references to synergy leveraging and value generation, but those all-important questions as to what the new operator will eventually be called and what colors it will sport are left unanswered. All that really matters for now is that the UK has a new market share leader and the mobile space became that little bit less competitive.
[Thanks, Mitchel]
posted March 2nd 2010 5:47AM
This is considerably more benificial to the Orange customers than the T-mobile ones
@geekthree can you expand on that?
@geekthree
Why? T-mobile people now get Orange wednesdays and a vastly faster and larger network?
@Johnsonsthecleaners I just think T-Mobile's always been considered the better carrier, Orange have always had a crappy service (based both on experience, and over-all impression based on other people..)
I just reckon orange customers might get some of the better plans that T-Mobile have to offer...
Of course there will be someone who will beg to differ.. thats cool, but I've just always seen the bad side to Orange...
@(Unverified) I have always believed that Orange has superior network coverage, especially looking throughout the UK.
I do have ever like the potential to look into the T-Mobile 30 day rolling contracts.
But after everything comes together we could just find massive money saving strategies and less of what we actually want!
@geekthree are you serious, t mobile has the worst network coverage besides 3. no one stays on t mobile cos they say they never have signal and comedians always take the p*** out of it. do you actually live in the UK cos everyone knows its bad? they only offer good deals to make up for the lack of coverage.
saying that tho i wasnt really happy with the over charging from orange when i was with them, have known people to incur £200+ phone bills from them.
happy with vodafone now.
@thebettertwin I'm in Northern Ireland, I've always found T-Mobile signal fine (again, only within the areas I travel).. but I suppose it varies from place to place.
I was refering to Orange's tarrifs and service, rather than coverage.
I'll agree with your choice of Vodaphone, I had the pleasure of being a business customer with them for about a year (before the iPhone got released) and their service (again, not coverage, support and billing) and found them to be fantastic.
@thebettertwin
I got no network at all in my house when on orange (well I did for 6 months and then is mysteriously disappeared for the next 3 years) Also Orange have the worst customer service of anyone I have ever dealt with bar "The Student Loans Company"! They are the only company where I have been repeatedly told my customer service reps that "it is up to them to decide whether I get to speak to a manager or not"! Also when I had a phone break due to a fault 2 months into a contract they told me I had to send it to them (and pay for the delivery) and I would be without a phone for up to 3 weeks! Vodafone replaced my storm (after some water got into the handset) by sending the replacement by courier and swapping it on the doorstep! What a difference to Orange... The only good thing was orange wednesdays but this eventually got so popular that we could never get to see the films that we wanted....
@geekthree Orange support is shocking. However, who else gives me a great excuse to take persuade beautiful girls to accompany me to the movies on a Wednesday?
@thebettertwin The ideal situation will be if Orange customers gain T-Mobile's better customer service and more customer-friendly plans, and T-Mobile customers gain the use of Orange's 900MHz network in addition to T-Mobile's existing 1800MHz network (which requires greater density of masts in order to compensate for the lesser signal propagation, and is more easily blocked by buildings).
@geekthree "This is considerably more benificial to the Orange customers than the T-mobile ones" .
Rather than making a relative argument, I'll make an absolute one. More market control and less consumer choice leads to higher prices and worse service. Boo merger!
@cowbutt And orange customers gain T-Mobile's tarrifs.. and some overhaul of customer services creates a better one..
They do have an awesome oppertunity.. I hope they don't waste it
@juanvaldez I don't know, I agree with your statement, but with Vodaphone, and o2.. they've still got alot to compete over, and hopefully o2 and Voda react with better deals..
Could be a good thing..
I hope.
@geekthree
As long as orange don't start putting crap ware on t -mobile mobiles i.e with htc jade they disabled the wifi,
@coffeecharity plus the rubbish other software orange puts on there phones, i know all carriers do this but orange and verizon are the worst.
@geekthree What planet are you living on exactly?!!! T-mobile has by far and away the worst coverage of the major UK carriers. Even if u stand next to a signal mast u still won't get any signal!! This is hugely beneficial to tmobile customers. I'm hoping this is beneficial to everyone and we see some major price wars, especially for the iPhone!
@to86 I'll quote myself (6th comment on my origional post):
" I was refering to Orange's tarrifs and service, rather than coverage. "
@to86
T-Mobile customers may benefit from better coverage (although I have found Orange coverage to be pretty poor too) but they may well also inherit the god damn awful orange customer service too which is a very bad thing indeed. In fact I would rather not have a phone at all rather than have to deal with orange ever again.
@thebettertwin
Actually when I lived in Belfast both T-mobile and Orange were fine, I had contracts with both. I'm back on T-mobile in Edinburgh now and have great reception and speed to be honest Orange were more annoying because at the time (4 years ago) they gave very few free texts.
Can't say I have any real complaint with either but I'm glad they are both now big enough to fight O2 who had the worst customer support I have ever experienced and the worst reception.
@fourthletter
i actualli found my orange coverage better than my O2s(O2 on iphone btw), but cuz jus got new T-mob handset and coverage realli bad and data connection slow
:o
Orange + T-Mobile's awful fuchsia . . . What color would that make?
@Smart People Play Tuba
You get Dunkin Donuts.
I concur with Geekthree, in my past dealings with Orange, I'd consider them the cowboys of customer services.
So what now? Orange-Mobile? Orange T?
T-Angerine
Orange you glad you're a subscriber?
So what happens to all of that spectrum they own?
@xbit It's a condition of the merger being allowed that 25% of T-Mobile's 1800MHz spectrum has to be sold, probably to 3.
I am with Orange today so if this deal improves the service that I get then that's good news for me. My primary concern with Orange at the moment is that the 3G data network seems particularly iffy to me. I have no 3G connection at work in the centre of a relatively large town (Nuneaton) so have to put up with GPRS and it's definitely not unusual to have a 3G connection with no apparent bandwidth in other locations. Frankly, I've been less than impressed with 3G since my return to the UK.
@Kelmon
Most cases of poor signal at work are due to the amount of concrete and metal in your building and the fact that your phone may be one of thousands in a densely packed square mile in the CBD.
@fourthletter
So, basically, 3G kinda sucks but there are reasons why. I can't say that this makes me feel warm and fuzzy. What I want to know is when 3G, or whatever comes after it, is going to solve this fairly basic problems that prevents the service from being useful. I was hoping that perhaps the merger between Orange and T-Mobile might help but it sounds like it is the technology itself that might be the problem.
I just returned from two weeks in London, and I used an Orange PAYG SIM while I was there. The coverage was pretty spotty, I was lucky to get even one bar in my hotel room. But then when I went to Paris my texts and calls weren't charged as roaming, so I guess that part was good.
Yay to EU for, with one hand, approving a merger of two large telecoms that creates an even larger company and reduces competition in the market, i.e. anti-competitive, and with the other hand, trying to go after Google for "anti-competitive" practices that, at least as far as I can see, are actually just Google being really good at what they do.
[s]I'm glad to see it's not only the legislators in the US that are complete morons.[/s]
@2late2die Despite the reduction in the number of companies, this probably makes the UK mobile phone market more rather than less competitive, neither company was big enough on its own to truly compete with o2 or vodafone and now they are.
@2late2die
They are getting nearly half the population, possibly more if you consider most kids and old people don't have mobiles. Quite surprised this went ahead.
As long as the prices remain the same as T-Mobile Pay as you go then alls good, if not im switching networks
cool good news for me, i hate o2 the service for 3g is appaling.
i didnt want to go crawling back to vodafone just yet... so T-orangmobile sounds great. apparently decent 3g connection coverage for orange and decent mobile internet plans from t-mobile :D
T-mobile and Three have an arrangement where they share/invest in 3G transmitters. Thats why 3G on T-mobile is far better than O2 or Orange. Orange customers have the most to gain from a merger due to better 3G coverage they will get.
I fear that overall everyone will suffer due to job cuts and less real competition. At least T-mobile customers will get the iphone now.
@albsure
As far as I know Three move to orange for their 2G service around a year ago. Well that is what they told me anyway.
@albsure
Orange currently has the largest 3g coverage of any other UK operator so where did you get your figures from?
http://3g.orange.co.uk/index.html?WT.mc_id=ConMarGoMob_1059&WT.srch=1&cd_source=Automedon&shopSource=onlineSearch&sissr=1
Merger to be called Tangerine, sporting the T Mobile "T" and dashes and and an Orange typeface spelling of "angerine".
I'll keep an eye on the post for my cheque.
I like the sound of "Orange Bile" - you could go to town on creatives.
They should call themselves Fruit Salad - the colours fit!
http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/fruit-salad-p-125.html
As for Orange, I've NEVER had a problem with their service in the 15 years I've been with them. decent coverage (better than Voda or t mobile in my area) & always helpful with billing or tech enquiries
@DarthPaul
You must be an isolated case as myself and everyone I know that has dealt with orange view them with nothing but contempt!
@coolblue2000
there is always the possibility that I, being the single customer to have used Orange without issue, happen to be a reader of Engedget on the day that they post an article about Orange.
Or perhaps the people who have the problems are just incredibly vocal about it.
I wouldn't use their internet though
@DarthPaul
You sir, are a genius!
Torange mobile?
orange-T no wait ..eew
I'm on T-mobile, I'm more interested in handset choice. Really the only advantage Orange has on handsets is the iPhone at the moment, the coming soon on orange is quite depressing. T-Mob however has the Desire and the X10 en route. So i agree that Orange has the most to gain (if in fact there is any consolidation of handset options)
This seems like a shame. One of the cool things was the amount of carrier competition in the UK, as opposed to say.. North America. I figured the EU would be against mergers between monolithic entities entirely.