Proposed Orange-T-Mobile merger centered around iPhone

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    According to The Daily Telegraph, the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the U.K. would have 28.4 million customers representing 37 percent of the market.



    My first thought after reading the above was that there must have been a population explosion in the past few years.



    I understand that the UK has just over 60 million residents.* If so, the two companies would have over 47% of the entire population as customers. I would be interested in hearing how they define the "market."



    *https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/uk.html
  • Reply 22 of 32
    richysrichys Posts: 160member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    My first thought after reading the above was that there must have been a population explosion in the past few years.



    I understand that the UK has just over 60 million residents.* If so, the two companies would have over 47% of the entire population as customers. I would be interested in hearing how they define the "market."



    *https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/uk.html



    Ever thought that some people might have more than one mobile? I certainly have a personal T-Mobile contract, and a work O2 contract.



    Having said that, the operators are a little fast and loose with their numbers -- PAYG in particular. Most operators will still count you as a 'customer' even if you haven't used the SIM for 3-6 months. With churn rates as high as 30%, that's a lot of double-counting! So, a more realistic number might be a good 20-25% lower than the operator claimed number.
  • Reply 23 of 32
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,617member
    Having been with both Orange and T-Mobile in the UK I am glad that I am with neither now. Orange customer service used to be fantastic, now, its crap. T-Mobile have countless issues with their network infrastructure which leads to missed calls, no caller ID and service dropouts.
  • Reply 24 of 32
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    I understand that the UK has just over 60 million residents.* If so, the two companies would have over 47% of the entire population as customers. I would be interested in hearing how they define the "market."



    Cell phone penetration in the UK stands at about 110% (i.e. 66 million customers in a population of 60 million people). Many people either have a work and personal SIM or two personal SIMs. So, one person can be double-counted in some instances.



    I believe Italy has even higher cell phone penetration, around 117% the last time I looked.
  • Reply 25 of 32
    As I raised originally,



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    According to The Daily Telegraph, the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the U.K. would have 28.4 million customers representing 37 percent of the market.



    My first thought after reading the above was that there must have been a population explosion in the past few years.



    I understand that the UK has just over 60 million residents.* If so, the two companies would have over 47% of the entire population as customers. I would be interested in hearing how they define the "market."



    *https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/uk.html



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RichL View Post


    Cell phone penetration in the UK stands at about 110% (i.e. 66 million customers in a population of 60 million people). Many people either have a work and personal SIM or two personal SIMs. So, one person can be double-counted in some instances.



    I believe Italy has even higher cell phone penetration, around 117% the last time I looked.



    According to the CIA Factbook, the UK has over 72 million cell phone subscribers.



    As a researcher, I was just interested in how they defined the market, in particular, the number of customers, i.e., people, were unique subscribers.



    Consider (1) that approximately 25% of the population, i.e., young children and the elderly, would be less likely to have such and an indigent rate of at least 6%, and other factors that may influence purchasing power, e.g., labour force 50%; below poverty line 14%; unemployment 6%, etc.



    (2) Much of European cell phone users use prepaid cards.



    The last fact alone makes it virtually impossible to determine the actual number of unique users.
  • Reply 26 of 32
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,953member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RichL View Post


    Cell phone penetration in the UK stands at about 110% (i.e. 66 million customers in a population of 60 million people). Many people either have a work and personal SIM or two personal SIMs. So, one person can be double-counted in some instances.



    I believe Italy has even higher cell phone penetration, around 117% the last time I looked.



    Some people mentioned that carriers count SIMs that haven't been active for several months to half a year.



    How do people handle multiple SIMs if they keep them in active use? Are they carried around like loose change, you swap them at home, at work or what? Do you carry around multiple phones? Seems pretty cumbersome to me.
  • Reply 27 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    Deliberately twisting the intent of the original article is just bad form. Bad, Katie! Bad!



    Who's Katie?
  • Reply 28 of 32
    samabsamab Posts: 1,953member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    Some people mentioned that carriers count SIMs that haven't been active for several months to half a year.



    How do people handle multiple SIMs if they keep them in active use? Are they carried around like loose change, you swap them at home, at work or what? Do you carry around multiple phones? Seems pretty cumbersome to me.



    "Active" doesn't mean that it's active use --- it means you are paying the prepaid top-up fee once every few months in order to keep your telephone number.



    In third world countries like India, they make specialized GSM phones that can hold 2 SIM cards.



    Virgin Mobile USA's IPO papers said that they used 150 days --- when the rest of American carriers use 90 days. Idiots should know that those were big alarm bells and shouldn't have invested in the IPO in the first place. They lost their ass with that IPO.



    http://seekingalpha.com/article/3485...usa-ipo-filing



    Softbank Mobile keeps on winning more subscribers every month --- their secret? Not the iphone, but an accounting change --- they use an even more absurd 12 months rule (when the rest of Japanese carriers also use 90 days rule).



    http://analytica1st.com/analytica1st...look-good.html
  • Reply 29 of 32
    This whole article is total FUD ! the original Telegraph article hardly mentions the iPhone, O2s exclusivity rights to the iPhone ends this year and Orange and others say they will also be selling it before xmas.

    T-Mobile UK has been for sale for a while and this merger was dreamed up to get around strict regulator control that would apply to a sale but not a merger.

    Sorry kids but you totally made this story up just link something to Apple since It's only rock and roll

    was such a massive let down !

    FUDFUDFUDFUD
  • Reply 30 of 32
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,953member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fourthletter View Post


    This whole article is total FUD ! the original Telegraph article hardly mentions the iPhone, O2s exclusivity rights to the iPhone ends this year and Orange and others say they will also be selling it before xmas.

    T-Mobile UK has been for sale for a while and this merger was dreamed up to get around strict regulator control that would apply to a sale but not a merger.



    Makes sense, someone pointed out that this article was twisted from the source.



    Quote:

    Sorry kids but you totally made this story up just link something to Apple since It's only rock and roll

    was such a massive let down !

    FUDFUDFUDFUD



    Do you know how to read dates? This story was published on Tuesday, the Apple presentation was Wednesday.
  • Reply 31 of 32
    The difference really is just apples and oranges isn't it???



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