Fone Forum

Deutsche Telekom is in early talks with three companies to sell off its UK mobile business T-Mobile.

The future of Britain's fourth placed mobile firm has been in doubt for some time.  In the summer advisers JP Morgan (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/02/t_mobile_bidders_vodafone/) were appointed to find buyers for the firm.

Deutsche Telekom is talking to Vodafone, France Telecom and Telefonica.  An anonymous source told the FT (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cdd3e664-98ae-11de-aa1b-00144feabdc0.html): “If we’re lucky, we could end up with a three-horse race.”

The source also reckoned that the slight improvement in the economy meant that the price for T-Mobile had also risen from about £3bn in July to nearer £4bn now.  Which is still a fraction of what the firm paid for its 3G license.

A deal is unlikely to be hammered out before October at the very earliest.  Any cash raised would help Deutsche Telekom strengthen US business.

For a look at what a sale would mean in terms of radio spectrum and networks there's an analysis piece here (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/03/t_mobile_vodafone/).

Source:-   TheRegister (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/04/tmobile_three_way/).

The rumours seem to gaining more substance, with several reports in the last hour or two that an announcement is expected tomorrow about a joint operation between Orange and T-mobile

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/090709-report-dt-and-france-telecom.html?ap1=rcb

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090907-706317.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/6152560/T-Mobile-and-Orange-joint-venture-to-have-37pc-of-UK-market.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE58639720090907

Thanks for your post andy, and for the news articles.

It has been given out today as a partially accomplished deal, and there is a further report on the BBC News website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8243226.stm).

I have to say that I should not be happy if I were a T-Mobile customer.  The prospect of customer service falling to the appalling standards seen on  France Telecom is hardly to be relished.

surely that is the case.
Also  Fair competition authority in EU will be watching the whole thing very closely.

Well its the way you look at it MH. It is a known fact that t-mobile has the worst coverage outside the major towns and with the network assets of Orange and t-mobile merging, t-mobile customers can expect better coverage. So if you are happen to be on a good deal with t-mobile, it should actually be good. My company's official phones are on t-mobile and we get pathetic in-building coverage.

latest news on going hot deal  is here .Orange and T mobile got together
see this link

http://www.orange.co.uk/news/topstories/25260.htm?linkfrom=hp2&link=hero_pos_3_link_subtitle&article=090908x1000x3heronewsorangetmobileplanukmerger

I am not sure about this Nik.   The figures for T-Mobile and Orange are not that dissimilar.  Right now, T-Mobile has around 10,000 2G base stations, while Orange runs about 13,000; both companies operate around 7,000 3G base stations.

Now, superficially, you can say that 10,000 + 13,000 will be a lot more, but alas that is not the case.  Unfortunately their plans are to dismantle masts, and to reduce the dual coverage in areas served by both.  This is part of the rationale, the 'synergy' cost saving motivation, for the deal in the first place.


In any case, there is a well known difficulty with the 1800 MHz signals used by both networks: they simply do not penetrate buildings in the way that the 900 MHz signal used by O2 and Vodafone do.  You may find an improvement if the T-Mobile is particularly weak in your area, but don't count on it I should say.

very interesting post about the frequencies there. i never knew that. i can bloat that out to my friends now and act as a geek. incidentally in my house, we only get t-mobile and o2 well; vodafone is bad and orange is really really bad. i wonder how that correlates with what you said?  ;)

I hope you enjoy being a geek seanjoe !        :D

I wouldn't expect there to be any correlation between what I wrote, and the local report that you made.  If your Vodafone and Orange reception are bad, I expect that is because they have poor coverage in your area.        ;)

My point about buildings was that, in areas where the 1800 and 900 MHz signal strength were comparable outside, the penetration into buildings will be better on the 900 MHz networks.  And I was pointing out to Nik that the penetration problem may be giving a misleading impression of T-Mobile coverage where he works.        ;)

However, I have read another interesting article since my earlier post.  Apparently T-Mobile and Orange follow opposite strategies about their masks:


Bringing the two together isn't going to be easy, ( and I for one hope it does not happen ).        :o

and what is BTS?

BTS 
Short for base transceiver station. In mobile communications, a BTS holds the radio transceivers that define a cell and coordinates the radio-link protocols with the mobile device. The BTS is the networking component of a mobile communications system from which all signals are sent and received. A BTS is controlled by a base station controller.
A BTS is also called a base station (BS) and is commonly referred to as a "cell phone tower."
 

Base Transceiver System.

See:-   this (http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/BTS).        ;)

EDIT:-  Thank you amitjajoo: our posts clashed.        :o