Orange - T-Mobile UK merger finally gives access to both networks
It's taken the merged entity 5 months to sort out how to allow consumers to share the two networks
Published: 7 September, 2010
READ MORE: UK | Orange (UK) | T-Mobile (UK) | Cellular
Everything Everywhere, the merged business for Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, has finally taken its first positive steps as a merged entity, planning to offer customers roaming access to both networks, at no extra cost, from October 5 onwards.
The result should mean that overall there will be a huge step up in 3G reach for the two networks which have suffered in distant third and fourth places previously, as they tried to stretch resources for a nationwide 3G build to the network edge. Last year official coverage maps came out for the first time, which showed that T-Mobile customers in particular suffered a paucity of 3G connections with signals falling back to GSM and EDGE in many parts of the country.
The two best coverage UK networks, O2 and Vodafone have continually stolen customers based on the poor network reach of the other two. The combined coverage from Orange and T-Mobile will still only be on a par with the previous market leaders, because they often chased overlapping coverage areas. Three UK has a worse problem in that its 3G coverage is quite good, but only because it has no fall back position to GSM, because it had no prior network.
The change will immediately affect 30 million Orange and T-Mobile customers who will now systematically get invites to sign up to the merged coverage by triggering a data download by signing up at either web site. Even though the two companies have merged in the UK, they will keep their existing identities, and report to this Everything Everywhere merged corporate structure in a deal that largely looks like it could be reversed at any convenient point in the future.
The new service will have to be signed up for but though we're not sure why, as there is no extra charge for the service and no changes to existing tariffs or call and text charges. Both contract and pay-as-you-go customers can make the switch and then their phones will automatically pick up the nearest signal (either 3G or GSM) regardless of which of them owns the base station.
It will not be until next year that automatic roaming to the strongest signal will happen during calls, rather than at the initiation of a call and subsequently data and internet coverage will be merged, but there is no date for that as yet.
All this goes to show how slowly RAN sharing agreements will pan out and how difficult it is to merge two networks once they have a large existing customer base.
The two mobile networks originally agreed to merge in April, creating what is claimed to be the UK's largest mobile company. The new name for their joint venture, Everything Everywhere, was announced in May, but so far nothing concrete has happened.
The merged network is still a long way off its promise to offer customers the best UK service, and both networks continue to perform badly according to customer polls. It's unclear if the two plan to merge helpdesks at this time, though it would make a lot of sense.
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