UK: Vodafone and Three announce intention to merge, creating the biggest operator

14 June 2023
The combined company would overtake both EE and O2 in market share.

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Anonymous, 15 Jun 2023India barely has 5G, they're years behind in deployment India, personally, i think the government there is not good to the local population, yet India gov has money for space program, UK don't have a space program, India spend billions on a pointless tallest monument, yet, they have barely 5g network as you mentioned, china has excellent 5g network, what's there internet connection then?, a train network from 19th century, what's their infrastructure such as road network then, then would if they encourage EVs in india, in shenzhen, you can not hear much traffic as now cars 70% are EVs

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • CIR
    • 16 Jun 2023

    [deleted post]What are they going to do with the 'loot' after they get it back? Sell it for more 5G funds?

      • s
      • sq2013
      • smM
      • 16 Jun 2023

      Listen to all the complaining about signal. I worked in a call centre and the callers were often people with a similar lack of knowledge of how mobile signal works. It's impossible to have 100% geographical coverage. To get even close, many more masts would have to be built. Micro masts and full sized cell towers. This scale of development would be vetoed by environmentalists and would also increase health concerns. When I worked in the cell phone industry, you wouldn't believe the amount of proposed site installations were blocked by wealthy landowners like farmers. Also, they were often blocked simply by people trying to preserve the look of places of natural beauty. Coverage in the big cities is good because you can put micro masts that blend in on the street or in buildings and nobody cares. It's already an ugly concrete mess. Coverage is more an issue rurally due to the cost and difficulty to make it commercial to build masts that cost millions to build and maintain with a small customer catchment base. Mobile signal is affected by line of sight and also by contention and capacity. If you want 100% coverage, count in having much shorter lifespans due to living in cancer city.

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        • Hmm
        • ps8
        • 16 Jun 2023

        Funny how there's not a single mention of any regulatory hurdles whereas when Microsoft wants to take over Activision Blizzard, the UK supposedly got issues.

          IcyJay30, 15 Jun 2023Lies, deception and jealousy https://www.counterpointrese... moreAccelerates now when western markets had covered entire countries already. Fact is there is no 5g in India and it was covered about this issue in many articles at GSMArena. They rolled out officially 5g only at the begining of this year, while 5g already was roled out in major countries 4 years ago. India's big and 5g only now is for the ritches in major cities and India is very far behind in 5g roll out, you like it or not.

            DP1963, 15 Jun 2023Quite. And yet they all boast '99% coverage.' Sti... moreits a bit of a sneaky play with words, 99% coverage is actually population based coverage not geographical land mass coverage, a bit naughty and slightly deceptive thats for sure, but even then, 99% coverage is a bit sceptical at best, there are plenty of black spots around my local area and many other towns and cities in the UK, and 5G is a joke of a roll out

              Anonymous, 15 Jun 2023I hope this merger does not go ahead. But the mobile signal... moreQuite. And yet they all boast '99% coverage.' Still, Ofcom being Ofcom, they roll over and let them get away with it.

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                • Anonymous
                • n54
                • 15 Jun 2023

                I hope this merger does not go ahead. But the mobile signal from all the networks needs to improve massively. There are more black spots than a mouldy council house, and calls dropping out even in good signal areas. This has to be a priority for improvement.

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                  • .alpha
                  • ytx
                  • 15 Jun 2023

                  Diavolo , 15 Jun 2023The minimum wage in the USA is around $15 per hour and my u... moreWhich carrier is $15 unlimited data?

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                    • Anonymous
                    • vaS
                    • 15 Jun 2023

                    Blur, 14 Jun 2023Less competition is always a bad thing for consumers.Nah. They're ok with less choices on hardware. They will be fine with monopolies. 🫢🫢🫢🫢🫢

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                      • Microplex
                      • HXc
                      • 15 Jun 2023

                      Anonymous, 15 Jun 2023Three are horrible with signal coverage. This should boost ... moreHere in Australia in 2012 Vodafone merged with Three Mobile to create the business company VHA (Vodafone Hutchison Australia). At that time Three was linked to Telstra for 3G services via the 3GIS network called 3Telstra but that ended with the VHA company and then Vodafone Network turned to absolute junk and the term "VODAFAIL" happens and VHA lost some 1.5 million subs, to this day the only reason why anyone would choose Vodafone in Adutralia is price as clearly it's still the rubbish network that only attracts prepaid subs.

                      IN fact the number 5 telco player in mobile but number 2 in fixed broadband ended up buying VHA a few years ago and renamed the business brand after the parent which is TPG TELECOM, there is talk that TPG TELECOM are going to dump the toxic Vodafone brand name very soon as it's absolute junk here.

                      So good luck in the UK with this merger, everywhere it's happened it means bad things happen.

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                        • Shaggy
                        • LgH
                        • 15 Jun 2023

                        Since Brexit, the EU competition laws won't apply anymore, so I guess they're good. The UK competition rules are not that strict. They just have to show that their merging is beneficial to the consumers.

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                          • Anonymous
                          • myq
                          • 15 Jun 2023

                          Three are horrible with signal coverage. This should boost it for the existing customers.

                            Three grabbed many subscribers with their free roaming in 71 countries. Now that's gone and they're charging ,even for EU roaming,add in their 'hit and miss' UK coverage, they need all the help they can get . I expect they're losing lots of users at the moment.

                              Anonymous, 15 Jun 2023India barely has 5G, they're years behind in deployment Lies, deception and jealousy
                              https://www.counterpointresearch.com/5g-rollout-accelerates-in-india/

                                garminhg, 14 Jun 2023in Italy i pay 10€ per month for a 70gb 4g+ plan/ unlimited... moreFor £12 a month you get 100gb data, you can use that all for tethering , no speed restrictions unlimited calls and texts with smarty, which three own. For unlimited everything and no fair usage policy it's £18.

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                                  • blue
                                  • 0BH
                                  • 15 Jun 2023

                                  Anders, 14 Jun 2023Hopefully Ofcom will actually do their job this time and bl... moreMore competition does not neccessarily bring better position of customers. And in limited environment, as cellphone operators are, even less.
                                  Each new operator has to build its own network, which is more demanding and more expensive every year. So they only bring more problems and the same prices as all others.

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • q}r
                                    • 15 Jun 2023

                                    imparanoic, 14 Jun 2023Are we talking 5g in India for that price? India barely has 5G, they're years behind in deployment

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • s8a
                                      • 15 Jun 2023

                                      Are these the same Hutch and Vodafone that got merged long back in India?

                                        imparanoic, 14 Jun 2023Are we talking 5g in India for that price? For 5G, A $3 recharge plan is sufficient cause 5G is unlimited(No cap) with 2 carriers in India

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