News Three owner in talks to buy O2

I really really really really hope that this doesn't cause me to lose my rolling £12.90pcm Unlimited Data contract with 3 :-(

 

Based on my experiences with O2, this can only be a bad thing for Three users.

 

It still will. Three's network isn't the best.

 

3 Has notoriously bad signal strength, whereas O2 seem to have decent strength I know this for a fact as I've been with O2 for about 8 years now and my mate has been with 3 for 4 years he lives downstairs to me and has major problems getting a signal in his flat, whereas I don't.

Hopefully this merger will fix some of the issues 3 has, if they can get past the Monopolies and Mergers commission that is, as this will make 3 the biggest mobile operator in the UK.

 

Knowing our luck we'll get the worst of both worlds... O2's pricing/data allowances and 3's customer service...

 

Thankfully I've been rather lucky with 3 reception. Just a couple of days ago a colleague was complaining about not having any signal in the office (on Orange). I open up SpeedTest and get 20Mbps on 2 bars of 4G.

It's certainly variable, but it's also definitely getting a lot better. I can get H+ signal in an underground nightclub now when I couldn't get anything this time last year in the same location!

 

I strongly suspect that is the way it will go.

 

Why?

 

Three's apparent signal strength indoors has been worse compared to the competition as they only had the 2100Mhz band to use for 3G services, while the bigger companies had the 900Mhz and 1800Mhz bands to play with as a legacy of their 2G services (which they got for free). With 4G, Three have now been using 1800Mhz so I've been getting much better 4G penetration indoors as compared to 3G (they also have a license for 800Mhz). O2 also have a chunk of 800Mhz spectrum for 4G so this can only improve things in terms of coverage.

 

Can't see why currant 3 customers will be any different as its 3 buying o2 not the other way round

At least after about 6 months to a year 3 customers would have a 2g network to use at last (o2 2g network is very good) and more 3g covered as well

 

The main thing that interests me here is whether this means that Three has plans for O2 around the rest of Europe as they already own O2 in Ireland as then they can expand their 'Feel At Home' program to include even more European countries.

I travel to Germany every couple of months and I would sign up in a heart beat if that offer was available.

 

I'd much rather have voLTE (Voice Over LTE) than 2G. Phasing people off of 2G services as fast as possible to reclaim that spectrum for more efficient coding schemes is much batter than having it hang about and waste capacity.

 

I've been with Three for a couple of years now and really can't grumble with regard to reception and the unlimited data has been the icing on the cake (although I hear they're starting to restrict it on new contracts).

I can't comment on customer service as I've never needed to call them, which I suppose says something in itself.

 

As a customer of 3 [also a customer of o2 fwiw] - they're wonderful... provided you never have to speak to them, at which point it all falls apart... Virgin are the same...

Had the misfortune of having to deal with o2, EE, Voda and 3 CS on a almost daily basis, 3 were by far the worst...

 

I wonder what Telefonica will do with it's O2 spin off, GiffGaff as that uses the O2 network.

 

Do wonder if the 2 recent mobile deals will actually pass through legislation as we are talking 30% + figures for both once merged.

Don't think I'd ever get tv broadband mobile and home phone under one company. Most of them suck at one of the 4 and with tv In the uk your stuck with Sky if you want all the channels. Virgin is the best for broadband, BT has the best phone and EE has best signal in most locations. You would probably not save a great deal either.

Sky's all in one package for full tv top end fiber and all inc calls is only £10 cheaper combined than it is split up as they don't charge line rental.

 

EE has best signal? Are you drunk? There are thousands of complaints about people not being able to make phone calls and even when they can the signal drops the call. It's all very well having maybe the best 4G service but not if you can't use a phone for it's most basic service... even more so when you look at their prices.

You also can't state so categorically that Virgin is the best for broadband. They suck with their service over phone lines and many places (including areas of London such as E3) just can't get their fibre service.

Similar can be said with regards to BT. Best is what's best for you and what you need. I am with Sky and I get far more than I would with BT while paying less.

As for the deals being endorsed, both deals have had good response from the EU as the EU has already sanctioned 4 to 3 mobile service providers.

 

EE are pretty much the same price as O2.( for high end brand new devices the low end is not really valid from my point of view)1000 complaints per 1 million customers would be a very good complaint to customer ratio for the record.(0.1%) its what most big business aims for. EE has 5.6million customers even if 100k hated them it would not be the biggest cause for concern. ( just under 2%)

Service really is area dependent in the centre of newcastle both O2 and EE have a 4g signal At my house none of them has one. Sky's tv deal can't really be beaten as it has 0 competition in the UK. I know when we returned last year we got offered 12 months at 65% off on all channels we were paying less than £30. BE customers transfering to sky were offered some decent deals.