Reviews - Three and O2 deal finalised with £10.25bn definitive agreement

[HEXUS]

The resulting company will be the UK's largest mobile operator.

Read more.

[TAKTAK]

They should re-brand to Ozone; that would entertain me greatly.

[Tabbykatze]

They should re-brand to Ozone; that would entertain me greatly.

You sir, have just made my day.

[kalniel]

"Reviews - Three and O2 deal finalised with £10.25bn definitive agreement"

I can't see a review?

[mtyson]

In related news, BT has announced BT Mobile and its tariffs. Prices start at £5pm for existing customers, which nets 200 mins and 500MB 4G data.

[kalniel]

In related news, BT has announced BT Mobile and its tariffs. Prices start at £5pm for existing customers, which nets 200 mins and 500MB 4G data.

I'm still using the phone I had from BT Cellnet..

[BlackDwarf]

I was going to jump ship from O2 to EE for the Galaxy S6 due to overall poor signal on O2, but if they're going to merge with Three, will that mean I get considerably improved signal quality sticking with O2?

[cheesemp]

With only 3 operators you can pretty much say goodbye to competition. They won't price fix to fall foul of competition laws but you can be sure they won't be fighting for business, cutting prices etc to get more market share. Really worries me how little competition we now have in phone, mobile and broadband (and TV to a lesser extent).

[shaithis]

With only 3 operators you can pretty much say goodbye to competition. They won't price fix to fall foul of competition laws but you can be sure they won't be fighting for business, cutting prices etc to get more market share. Really worries me how little competition we now have in phone, mobile and broadband (and TV to a lesser extent).

Well, there will be stiff competition soon but I fear that someone like myself will not get a single deal.

The war is going to be on supplying all 4 services in a bundle. Bundles for these services are terrible. I may be in a good area for BT BB but get a poor EE signal, I may not be interested in BTs channels etc.

It basically means we are soon going to have to make large compromises or pay through the nose.

[ik9000]

They should re-brand to Ozone; that would entertain me greatly.

O3 surely? Which would be the chemical formula for... oh I get it now!

[ik9000]

Shame. Three, despite their lousy customer service (try getting through to a human!), were IMO the last (price) innovator in the market. I bet we end up with Three's woeful customer helpline menu system and O2's less competitive pricing and tariffs. Worst of both worlds.

The government should be blocking these mega mergers. How is a new competitor supposed to enter this market now?

[3dcandy]

To be fair 3 customer service in the shops has always been alright...but yeah competition is out the window these days!

[Boon72]

They should re-brand to Ozone; that would entertain me greatly.

O3 surely? Which would be the chemical formula for... oh I get it now!

I prefer the big three names as O3, BEET & Vodafone :-)

[ajones]

They should re-brand to Ozone; that would entertain me greatly.

Alas I doubt it. They generally don't mix internal project names with branding...

[crossy]

They should re-brand to Ozone; that would entertain me greatly.

I'll second that, but only because I came across a definition of Ozone that states that "It is irritating and toxic - even at low concentrations - producing severe headaches, burning eyes and difficulty breathing". Which pretty much sums up my reaction to O2+Three, since like ik9000 I think we'll end up with O2's coverage and plan pricings with Three's customer service.

Someone really, really needs to look seriously at breaking up these big players, or at least preventing them from screwing over the customer due to their size.

[Spud1]

Urgh well at least I can be happy I am not on o2 - three are an awful network with the worst customer service of the lot (still!) and in my experience a generally poor signal. Lucky I am with EE at the moment, who have been great I'd be mighty angry if I were an o2 customer though. Bad enough that EE are merging with BT (who are as bad as 3 for their CS) but I guess we'll have to see how it turns out.

The biggest issue is the lack of competition now - we're ending up with 1 operator per market segment. O2/3 for the budget market, EE/BT in the middle and Voda at the high end. I really don't get how this can be allowed to happen - I don't see the benefit for consumers (we already have signal sharing plans etc which dont need mergers!) or the market, its lose lose.