Hutchinson in early talks to acquire O2 from Telefonica

[HEXUS]

Rumours suggest that the owner of Three may pay as much as £9bn for the carrier.

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[AlexKitch]

Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Three's network is lightyears ahead of O2's, but Three's customer care is well known for being some of the worst.

[crossy]

Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Three's network is lightyears ahead of O2's, but Three's customer care is well known for being some of the worst.

Reduced competition has just got to be a bad thing. And I'm getting somewhat concerned about the amount of power in the hands of so few companies. I also think that I'd be very concerned if I was a Three and O2 employee since such a merger has got to mean quite substantial job losses, sorry, "cost savings".

And if Three's customer service is dire, I can't see how adding all those extra subscribers is going to make it better. Although, my few brushes with O2's CS folks seem to show that they're actually worse - although I'd be the first to admit that perhaps I'd been unlucky.

I can't see Ofcom doing anything substantial about this merger (like blocking it), I think expressing "concern" about the lack of competition will be about the limit of it.

[tonyd223]

Mobile industry is dominated by ARPU - average revenue per user. There's no money in answering the phone in customer services to someone who spends little money per month. Hence the move by EE/Orange to allow customer services users to pay for a faster response. Think about how broken that industry must be if they really believe that's ethical! In the last year with EE all of the problems I've had have been caused by EE!

[aidanjt]

So we're going to get O2's data bundles, and 3's lousy customer service?

[AlexKitch]

I'm getting somewhat concerned about the amount of power in the hands of so few companies.

Entirely agreed.

[bae85]

Hutchinson used to own Orange, sells Orange and then starts up 3 a year later. Acquires holding stakes in other international phone companies over the years such as in India, sells them all off to get rid of 2billion worth of debt then looks to buy O2. The mind boggles.