Fone Forum

"Orange and T-Mobile customers in the UK will be able to roam across both networks from 5 October, Everything Everywhere CEO Tom Alexander said today (3 September). ‘We see this as a step change for Everything Everywhere,’ said Alexander, speaking at the first year anniversary of the merger announcement between the two companies.

Users will be asked to ‘opt-in’ to the new service for the time being. The reason for this is that the networks handle around 1,600 different handsets and some devices may have problems with the service. By opting in customer service staff can find out what handset each user has and inform them if their device has any problems.

However, from the beginning of 2011 the roaming service will become automatic. The phones will track the strength of the signals and move seamlessly onto the strongest one available irrespective of which network the user is on. "

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Mobile_Exec/Customers_can_roam_across_Orange_and_T-Mobile_from_5_October.aspx

Good news this will give the user a great coverage!

I'm keen on seeing how this might work  8)

I'm also quite interested to see Vodafone's reply to that  ::)

I am intrigued by your post dlR: why do you expect any response from Vodafone in particular ?        :-\

Up here in North Vodafone is said to have the best coverage..

On the other hand 1800 spectrum will most of the times have a better quality

This is a very good announcement. T-mobile has better coverage for me in my area, but Orange seem to have a lot of better deals from online shops, so this will be really great. I think i'm gonna like this merger.

well, it was bound to happen somewhere

..and what about 3UK customers? Will they get access to original t-mobile network in case of loss of 3G signal?

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EDIT: Yes, they will - according to whatmobile.net (http://www.whatmobile.net/2010/09/orange-t-mobile-to-offer-roaming-from-october-5th/).

Register now to get roaming enabled:

If you’re on Orange – go here: www.t-mobile.co.uk/share
If you’re on T-Mobile – go here: www.orange.co.uk/share

This is a helpful post dlR: thanks.       :)

I have registered my Orange mobile on the T-Mobile link, and will see what happens.       ;)

Members interested in this development may like to read this article on TheRegister (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/06/orange_t_mobile/).       ;)

There is some more info here (http://www.slashgear.com/t-mobile-and-orange-network-share-goes-live-today-05105918/).

BTW. Network sharing does really work  ;)
"Orange T-Mobile" is displayed when the phone is on T-Mobile roaming which is quite funny to see..

Yeah it works Perfect,

I live in an area where T-Mobile coverage is quite shady :( but now i am able to use orange which has better coverage at my house


btw I just see Orange on my HTC Desire and not T-Mobile Orange ???

Many phones will show two fields for names, usually one of them the user's own brand, and the other the roamed network

On some phones the area of screen used for these is the same, so one hides the other after a couple of seconds

Andy, I've unbranded handset. Nevertheless - my mate who's got a orange branded one can see the same network name as I do.

Also when I choose a network manually I don't see 'T-Mobile' but 'Orange T-Mobile' (even if it's 3G only)

Well, it looks completely as you'd expect, similar to as if you were roaming on a foreign network

Is there any solid information as to when 3G network sharing will be enabled? If a time comes where essentially T-Mobile, Orange and 3 all share the same 3G infrastructure hopefully Vodafone and o2 will finally do something about their terrible 3G coverage :D

I've just got an Orange phone. Should the two lines above not be interchanged?
ie. If you're on Orange - go to the Orange website.
If you're on t-mobile - go the T-mobile website

You're right seanjoe. There must have been an error on whatmobile.net page. I went back to the original source page but 404 page loads up instead.



Orange customers go to Orange website

and

T-Mobile customers go to T-Mobile one.



Regards.

dlR