Three mobile may bid on either EE or O2, says report

[HEXUS]

Chinese parent company Hutchison Whampoa is interested in UK expansion.

Read more.

[Biscuit]

Whatever happens in all this movement, its only going to be bad for the consumer as it results in less competition.

[virtuo]

If Three get all of EE's kit then decent unlimited 4G has just become a real possibility.

[Top_gun]

Whatever happens in all this movement, its only going to be bad for the consumer as it results in less competition.

I too am concern about the consolidation of the big mobile operators.

[herulach]

If Three get all of EE's kit then decent unlimited 4G has just become a real possibility.

I already have decent unlimited 4G with 3, it costs me £11/month. Admittedly only manchester/brum/london etc but its pretty sweet to get 20mbps synchronous on your phone.

[virtuo]

I already have decent unlimited 4G with 3, it costs me £11/month. Admittedly only manchester/brum/london etc but its pretty sweet to get 20mbps synchronous on your phone.

I've been with three for over a year now, 4G is patchy at best where I work, but EE seems to have a decent signal all the time. Plus the EE spectrum is one that the OnePlus can use.

[LSG501]

Whatever happens in all this movement, its only going to be bad for the consumer as it results in less competition.

lack of competition will likely stop three from buying either of them, they may just get away with o2 but ee is out of the question.

[crossy]

If Three get all of EE's kit then decent unlimited 4G has just become a real possibility.

I get pretty reasonable unlimited 3G and 4G from Three now (£18/month) and Three's stated 4G rollout plans are a lot more aggressive than EE's. That said if you think Three+EE=mobile nirvana then you're a lot less cynical than I am.

Given the experience with T-Mo -> EE, I strongly suspect that "E3E" will deliver good coverage (EE) with abysmal customer support (either) but price-premium dataplans (EE again) and small voice/text allowances (Three). I'm 100% sure that a merger will result in a "realignment" of the plans so the AYCE ones will either disappear or end up having £10-20/month whacked on them.

From a customers point of view we definitely want more real (not MVNO) mobile operators, not less. So any merging of the current four is a sackload of bad news.

[miniyazz]

If Three get all of EE's kit then decent unlimited 4G has just become a real possibility.

I get pretty reasonable unlimited 3G and 4G from Three now (£18/month) and Three's stated 4G rollout plans are a lot more aggressive than EE's. That said if you think Three+EE=mobile nirvana then you're a lot less cynical than I am.

Given the experience with T-Mo -> EE, I strongly suspect that "E3E" will deliver good coverage (EE) with abysmal customer support (either) but price-premium dataplans (EE again) and small voice/text allowances (Three). I'm 100% sure that a merger will result in a "realignment" of the plans so the AYCE ones will either disappear or end up having £10-20/month whacked on them.

From a customers point of view we definitely want more real (not MVNO) mobile operators, not less. So any merging of the current four is a sackload of bad news.

Unfortunately I tend to agree here. Initially the thought of 3 taking over another network conjures up images of better signal and network performance but in reality it's likely to have the opposite effect.
Yes they currently offer unlimited internet as a major selling point but as the other networks decline in number this becomes less important as a USP and is liable to be dropped, as it has been by all other networks (not that they ever properly offered unlimited internet).

In terms of coverage what should probably happen is a centralised core infrastructure to make best use of resources but this is fraught with problems and a situation like with landline internet may arise where the fast areas get faster and no investment gets pumped into the slow areas.

[Spud1]

Nothing good can come of this - but its not likely to it is?

You can just about see how BT could be allowed to buy one of them, but an existing mobile network
buying another when we only really have 3 players anyway? Can't see it happening.

EE have finally started giving me a good, reliable and very cheap connection, and their customer service has been excellent recently too. The thought of 3 poisoning that with their expensive pricing model (imo - your experience may vary!) and very average service\4g coverage is not a good one.

[Shahman]

With Three now and wouldn't mind them taking over EE, EE has gone downhill in terms of CS anyway

[simonpreston]

Well at least I might be able to get data on a 2G connection again...