Three could buy O2 ireland?

wexfordman2

gordongekko wrote: »

no I'm just talking about a bog standard UK (or anywhere else in Europe) sim card that has better offers than any Irish company. If there are no roaming charges i don't need to use a Irish licenced mobile company

Not really possible, for a start you would have a uk mobile number in ireland. Also, I don't think the abolition of roaming charges means you pay the same amount of money abroad irrespective of use etc. Remember, when you roam, your home network must pay the roaming network usage fees, and those costs would be recovered in some way.

Roaming g charges were high, but I don't thi k people expecting free roaming etc are being realistic

AlmightyCushion

gordongekko wrote: »

no I'm just talking about a bog standard UK (or anywhere else in Europe) sim card that has better offers than any Irish company. If there are no roaming charges i don't need to use a Irish licenced mobile company

If you're ringing and texting Irish numbers from a UK sim, I imagine it would be pretty expensive unless they count as part of your bundled minutes.

gordongekko

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

If you're ringing and texting Irish numbers from a UK sim, I imagine it would be pretty expensive unless they count as part of your bundled minutes.

its not going to happen for a year but if there are no roaming charges then a text is just a text and should be out of your bundle. The problem is likely to be poorer coverage than using an Irish licensed company.

If you had a duel sum phone you could use your Irish number to receive call and your cheaper UK phone to send calls until people got familiar with the new options.

AlmightyCushion

gordongekko wrote: »

its not going to happen for a year but if there are no roaming charges then a text is just a text and should be out of your bundle. The problem is likely to be poorer coverage than using an Irish licensed company.

If you had a duel sum phone you could use your Irish number to receive call and your cheaper UK phone to send calls until people got familiar with the new options.

Why would it come out of your bundle? They can't charge extra for roaming but I see nothing to suggest that they can't charge extra for calling or texting a foreign number which is what you'd be doing.

wexfordman2

gordongekko wrote: »

its not going to happen for a year but if there are no roaming charges then a text is just a text and should be out of your bundle. The problem is likely to be poorer coverage than using an Irish licensed company.

If you had a duel sum phone you could use your Irish number to receive call and your cheaper UK phone to send calls until people got familiar with the new options.

Why poorer coverage?

cookie1977

As I was saying here I highly doubt the ban on roaming charges will be in by next year. And it could be as far away as 2017. And either way I'm afraid your idea as it stands is a non starter.

RangeR

RangeR wrote: »

Starting to hear rumours that the deal is done.

A lot of mis-information going around - The nature of rumours. Seems that Liberty Global [although virgin was mentioned, are they the same company now?] are still in the running. VERY few people have the actual information.

cookie1977

Nothing on the interwebs really about it. Someone might have news over the weekend papers. Friday at 4.50pm is also a good time for leaks so things can settle over the weekend

AlmightyCushion

RangeR wrote: »

A lot of mis-information going around - The nature of rumours. Seems that Liberty Global [although virgin was mentioned, are they the same company now?] are still in the running. VERY few people have the actual information.

From what I remember liberty global just licence the virgin name in the UK.

Meesared

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

From what I remember liberty global just licence the virgin name in the UK.

They were bought by Liberty Global earlier this year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTL:Telewest#Acquisition_by_Liberty_Global

drunkmonkey

Friday evening rumour mill is swinging into action, looks like there at advanced stage... mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-21/hutchison-said-close-to-buying-telefonica-s-o2-ireland.html

www.rte.ie/news/business/2013/0621/458033-o2-hutchinson-whampoa/

RangeR

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Friday evening rumour mill is swinging into action, looks like there at advanced stage... mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-21/hutchison-said-close-to-buying-telefonica-s-o2-ireland.html

www.rte.ie/news/business/2013/0621/458033-o2-hutchinson-whampoa/

Linky says €700m. Think I heard up to €750m

cookie1977

Looks like the deal is done:

http://www.businesspost.ie/#!story/Markets/Markets+News/Three+to+buy+O2+Ireland+for+%E2%82%AC780+million/id/19410615-5218-51c7-e09f-dbb5a2800807

Three to buy O2 for 780 million

cookie1977

I wonder though will the competition authority be for or against this move?

krudler

Wonder will 3 keep the O2 brand separate for a while then merge it together or will it be an instant takeover, and what will it mean for the customer care centre in Limerick, if it'll be outsourced to India like 3's own call centre or kept here.

cookie1977

For a very short while maybe but they wont long term as there is an O2 company in Europe. They're only buying the Irish outlet. It's hard to know what they will do about customer care as they could take it either way but I imagine the first changes if any will be in the outlets selling the phones as they'll have too many of these for a single company.

helimachoptor

Very interesting development. Will be interesting to see what happens on many levels, also would fully expect job losses on the 02 side at some point

whitebriar

krudler wrote: »

Wonder will 3 keep the O2 brand separate for a while then merge it together or will it be an instant takeover, and what will it mean for the customer care centre in Limerick, if it'll be outsourced to India like 3's own call centre or kept here.

3 were on morning Ireland there.
This needs EU approval so no change for 8 months.
Assuming approval,the O2 brand will disappear entirely as all their customers become three within the next 2 years.

It will end the roaming tie up with vodafone obviously and with 02 sites on board and vice versa enhance 3g coverage for both.

cookie1977

Another question is what will happen to sponsorship. Three sponsor the Irish football team and O2 sponsor the Irish rugby team. Will they do both from now on?

krudler

or will the The O2 become The 3, it doesnt quite have the same ring to it

cookie1977

krudler wrote: »

or will the The O2 become The 3, it doesnt quite have the same ring to it

lol no it doesn't

krudler

8 months? long time to wait and find out if you're being made redundant, cant see 3 keeping an expensive call centre here when they already have one in India though, or at least downsizing it considerably.

Con Logue

cookie1977 wrote: »

Looks like the deal is done:

http://www.businesspost.ie/#!story/Markets/Markets+News/Three+to+buy+O2+Ireland+for+%E2%82%AC780+million/id/19410615-5218-51c7-e09f-dbb5a2800807

Three to buy O2 for 780 million

Oh f##k, back to the appalling customer service that I ran from Three from.

"Please hold on Sir, I am escalating your query"

*loafing on hold*

"Hello Sir, this is John. Have you turned on and off your handset?"

*repeat ad nauseum*

drunkmonkey

It does seem like a long amount of time, what effect will it have on 4G roll out, it can only delay it..

Con Logue

cookie1977 wrote: »

Another question is what will happen to sponsorship. Three sponsor the Irish football team and O2 sponsor the Irish rugby team. Will they do both from now on?

Outsource both to India.

SpaceTime

It could mean higher prices across the board. Three were very competitive!

I hope it doesn't mean that they lay off all the O2 call centre staff in Limerick though. That could be a major blow.

It's a shame really. I think Telefonica basically ran O2 into the ground they weren't even trying to be competitive over the last few years.

They seemed to stop responding to price competition. Yet they're blaming the economy for their situation.

cookie1977

drunkmonkey wrote: »

It does seem like a long amount of time, what effect will it have on 4G roll out, it can only delay it..

Delay? Delay whats already been delayed over and over again?

O2 had previously said that they'd launch 4G in early 2013: http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/o2-ireland-4g-network-675504-Nov2012/

Vodafone had planned on launching in the summer 2013 and no sign or hint of that either: http://irishtechnews.net/ITN3/vodafone-ireland-demos-4g/

But yes I imagine it may delay even further the launch but fingers crossed it wont!

Kensington

helimachoptor wrote: »

Very interesting development. Will be interesting to see what happens on many levels, also would fully expect job losses on the 02 side at some point

Expect the Three price options to become more aligned with O2 and O2 customer service to become more aligned with Three...

cookie1977

SpaceTime wrote: »

It could mean higher prices across the board. Three were very competitive!

I hope it doesn't mean that they lay off all the O2 call centre staff in Limerick though. That could be a major blow.

It's a shame really. I think Telefonica basically ran O2 into the ground they weren't even trying to be competitive over the last few years.

They seemed to stop responding to price competition. Yet they're blaming the economy for their situation.

I imagine (I could be wrong) it will mean a convergence of prices between the 2 companies. O2 have been profiting on the back of ever reducing customer numbers while three have been reasonably competitive/aggressive so I'd say they'll meet in the middle once the dust has settled.

Despite the fact that over the past few years O2 have lost customers and market share every quarter yet last quarter according to comreg they grew their revenue by market share against the odds by almost 2%. If this isn't price gouging it's remaining customer pool I dont know what is: http://irishtechnews.net/ITN3/comreg-quarterly-report-q1-2013/

SpaceTime

Telefonica misded the boat on a load of issues though. For example thry have major European and even global reach but they never offered an equivalent to Vodafone Passport