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Awhile back, T-Mobile UK and Orange UK announced they were merging. Of course they needed permission from the proper governmental authorities and all that jazz. Mission accomplished – the merger is now complete.
According to Cellular-News, the merger will account for cost savings of $730 million dollars/year from 2014 forward, but between 2010 and 2014 the carriers will need to spend $1.2 billion dollars in integration costs to realize the savings down the road. But those integration costs are offset by Capital Expenditure Savings of $1 billion between now 2014 and then $100 million a year thereafter.
Long story short, this gives both T-Mobile UK and Orange UK a much better position financially, which they can leverage to provide better products, at better prices, with better penetration, through better advertising/promotion. You know how the cycle goes.
For more details on the merger including naming of executives, read the article at Cellular-News.
Damn, this is huge news. Also, what is the final name, T-Orange?
Furthermore, there are rumors that Vodafone UK will acquire Three UK. Any truth to that?
Does it mean that T-Mobile customers can now opt for Orange wednesdays?
It is a serious question. Nope, not April fooling around.
@Sujoy – both brands will remain seperate from the customers viewpoint for the time being, you might see an introduction of Orange Wednesdays later though.
A Q&A would be good for them :D
i think final name has to be tangerine
this has got to be an april fools
definitely not an April fool papers were signed yesterday afternoon exciting times ahead for customers and the UK market
No, other Ben, not an April Fool’s joke. T-Mobile UK is being taken over by Orange. This won’t effect T-Mobile in the rest of the world.
My guess is that as they consolidate operations, the T-Mobile brand will vanish in the UK, and Orange Wednesdays will come to all present T-Mobile customers. (Though this may be wishful thinking!)
My concern is how the network sharing agreement between T-Mobile UK and 3 is going to work, now that it will be 3 and Orange. (Interestingly, 3 is owned and run by Hutchison who also owned Orange before selling it to France Telecom.) Will Orange make use of T-Mobile’s shared network and if they do will they be happy investing in a shared infrastructure which competes with their own wholly-owned infrastructure? A puzzle!
As far as I know this is a 50:50 merger, not a take over or buy out. The businesses will remain separate for about 18 months then be rebranded. I’ve read the new name might be “TOM” though this is not official or anything. I’m not keen on that myself…