BT-EE merger is provisionally cleared by UK's CMA

[HEXUS]

So the £12.5 billion deal looks set to go ahead.

Read more.

[bridges009]

That'll be another line rental increase then.

[crossy]

Hmm, given that EE provide the backend for Virgin, I wonder if Virgin Mobile is perhaps looking for another partner that they can run their MVNO from - Three perhaps?

To me that would make a lot of sense given that:
BT "Mobile" would use EE backend;
Sky uses O2;
TalkTalk uses Vodafone;
Virgin currently uses EE too, but I can't see that being desirable for either post-merger.

Plus I thought that Virgin provides the backend for Three's "free" WiFi on the London Underground, so they've already got some commercial relationship.

However shareholders are probably waiting for an Ofcom decision, regarding whether Openreach should, or should not be split from BT

Yes it definitely should!

[OilSheikh]

Everyone's merging left and right or closing down.
Things are graveously bad and just keep getting worse

[Montysaurus]

Same old, same old, in the largest open prison in Europe. Working sentence finished, time to leave!

[ik9000]

and BT will quickly kill ee wireless broadband. not paying line rental to BT ever again. time to find another provider I think.

[flearider]

I have bb phone and mobile with ee was happy .. now i'll be looking elsewhere

[cheesemp]

Grrr. Dislike BT and EE is the only mobile network I can get at home reliably. Bet I'll be bombarded by even more calls to switch my broadband back to BT now...

(Really really dislike the way bundling of TV, BB and phones are being pushed - Less competition and longer term higher price.)

[kalniel]

(Really really dislike the way bundling of TV, BB and phones are being pushed - Less competition and longer term higher price.)

Not to mention difficulty synchronising contracts. Yes, I'd like to switch, but can't, because you want to bundle services together that I've got a contract with someone else for that doesn't end for x months.

[leexgx]

BT did not own a mobile network before , now they provisionally do, this does not change mobile the market at all as there are only 4 real networks in the UK (soon maybe 3)

now 3 buying O2 will,, it would give 3 and O2 on par or surpass coverage compared to EE, as long as they don't do the same mistake as EE and pull down "surposlery overlapping" masts down leaving large areas with no coverage

[peterb]

BT did not own a mobile network before , now they provisionally do, this does not change mobile the market at all as there are only 4 real networks in the UK (soon maybe 3)

now 3 buying O2 will,, it would give 3 and O2 on par or surpass coverage compared to EE, as long as they don't do the same mistake as EE and pull down "surposlery overlapping" masts down leaving large areas with no coverage

BT were one of the first network operators in the UK (the other was Vodafone) with the Cellnet brand in the late 1980s, building up a large network, as did Vodafone. There were some slight technical differences in the network topology (how the cells were configured) but basically they and Vodafone (then owned by Racal Electronics) built up the UK cellular network from scratch. They sold the name and network some years later, and are now seeking to buy it back.

[kalniel]

BT were one of the first network operators in the UK (the other was Vodafone) with the Cellnet brand in the late 1980s, building up a large network, as did Vodafone. There were some slight technical differences in the network topology (how the cells were configured) but basically they and Vodafone (then owned by Racal Electronics) built up the UK cellular network from scratch. They sold the name and network some years later, and are now seeking to buy it back.

My phone is still a BT cellnet phone

[crossy]

BT were one of the first network operators in the UK (the other was Vodafone) with the Cellnet brand in the late 1980s, building up a large network, as did Vodafone. There were some slight technical differences in the network topology (how the cells were configured) but basically they and Vodafone (then owned by Racal Electronics) built up the UK cellular network from scratch. They sold the name and network some years later, and are now seeking to buy it back.

Ah nostalgia - I remember going into the BT Shop on Princes Street (Edinburgh) to buy a Motorola "soap bar" analogue phone - complete with Mattel-style plastic extending aerial. Wasn't a yuppie style "brick", but it startles me to think that my current G3 would fit into it's volume at least five times over.

now 3 buying O2 will,, it would give 3 and O2 on par or surpass coverage compared to EE, as long as they don't do the same mistake as EE and pull down "surposlery overlapping" masts down leaving large areas with no coverage

I'm not convinced - based on a small survey O2 seems to have pretty good phone/text - i.e. 2G - coverage but their data coverage is lousy. Three on the other hand seems to be an all-or-nothing deal, you either get coverage (phone/call/data) or nothing. Although the times when you get "nothing" seem to be getting fewer - although it still rankles that they'd "planned" 4G coverage for my area, then when I switched (from VirginMobile/EE) to get that 4G coverage the plan was (mysteriously) dropped. Still, at least I was able to make fulsome use of that @home data coverage when I was in the US recently. (BTW I got a text from Three after I got back claiming I'd saved nearly £1200 on calls and data by using @home - which was a bit on the shocking side [if true])

I strongly suspect that the O2/Three (are we still calling it O3?) tie-up is more to do with getting a larger subscriber base than any kind of coverage improvement.

[ik9000]

BT did not own a mobile network before , now they provisionally do, this does not change mobile the market at all as there are only 4 real networks in the UK (soon maybe 3)

now 3 buying O2 will,, it would give 3 and O2 on par or surpass coverage compared to EE, as long as they don't do the same mistake as EE and pull down "surposlery overlapping" masts down leaving large areas with no coverage

ee currently offer a broadband alternative to BT. Their wifi is far better than anything BT offer. My choice atm is BT 1.5Mb adsl and landline I don't need, Virgin, or EE wifi. Give BT control of EE and that is a direct crushing of competition. How long until EE wifi requires a BT landline? How long until data caps and oppressive throttling (so beloved of BT) sees me unable to remote into work like BT ADSL used to (not let me) do? I can't see this merger being good for competition in the slightest.

[peterb]

ee currently offer a broadband alternative to BT. Their wifi is far better than anything BT offer. My choice atm is BT 1.5Mb adsl and landline I don't need, Virgin, or EE wifi. Give BT control of EE and that is a direct crushing of competition. How long until EE wifi requires a BT landline? How long until data caps and oppressive throttling (so beloved of BT) sees me unable to remote into work like BT ADSL used to (not let me) do? I can't see this merger being good for competition in the slightest.

Depends whether EE is run as a separate company, just owned by the BT group or just incorporated. I would expect it to carry on much as before if it is a profitable enterprise. If it isn't currently profitable, then something will have to change, but that would be the same whoever took bought or merged with it.

And while BT speeds in some areas may not be the fastest, they have the widest internet coverage of any operator, they are not permitted to cherry pick the most profitable locations. I don't think EE have much wired infrastructure anyway so AFAIAA their phone/ADSL PACKAGES are run on the back of BT's anyway.

[ik9000]

Depends whether EE is run as a separate company, just owned by the BT group or just incorporated. I would expect it to carry on much as before if it is a profitable enterprise. If it isn't currently profitable, then something will have to change, but that would be the same whoever took bought or merged with it.

And while BT speeds in some areas may not be the fastest, they have the widest internet coverage of any operator, they are not permitted to cherry pick the most profitable locations. I don't think EE have much wired infrastructure anyway so AFAIAA their phone/ADSL PACKAGES are run on the back of BT's anyway.

what I mean is that my 4G ee means I do not need a landline. How long until they make that a condition of having it? BT seem hell-bent on making 3rd party ISPs necessitate landline rental, even if rebundling fibre.