[Closed] BT in talks to buy EE for £12.5bn

Thought they were buying O2 back?

I think the term is 'in talks with EE', and I've read that they're also in talks with O2 as well. Time will tell, as is always the case.

o2 would be easier as o2 have a lot of kit in BT exchanges up and down the land, presumably from when it was BT cellnet.

PM programme reckoned it was effectively a done deal though could still fall through in theory. Didn't mention O2.

I wonder what it would mean for the consumer.

Quad play, competitive bundles with bb, smart move from BT.

It would mean EE have just wasted a load building their own TV platform, or alternatively BT will use it as the base of their next generation service.

I can imagine there will be the usual couple of years of integration trauma on back office systems but should eventually give a decent offering. Makes them a lot stronger in Enterprise too.

I wonder what it would mean for the consumer.

Having twice been faced with bailiffs because BT were sending me someone else's bills... I think they're worse than genocide.

Noooo..... at least my EE contract is up. I will hold off renewing...

Quad play, competitive bundles with bb, smart move from BT.

What's interesting is that everyone's been expecting that from next Spring when they launch their full MVNO with EE. And given everyone's now moving to the European model of quad play (esp French thanks to Iliad's Free), this seems a mighty expensive way of doing it - a full MVNO only costs in the 10s of £millions.

What they're really doing is taking back their dominant position across all telecoms in the UK. I fail to see how the Competition Commission will consider this to be good for consumers, but it'll go through.

The only possible benefit is that BT won't want to trash the mobile or quad play market, meaning that TalkTalk (true quad play), Virgin (3+1) and no doubt Sky will slug it out to drive financial benefit for consumers.

Oh, and this should finally mean that Openrech is formally separated from the rest of BT. Which can't come soon enough in the fixed line world.

I heard this story too on the news

I'll certainly be waiting before any sort of renewal if BT do take over. Always had bad experiences with them in the past but EE have been great.

I moved house 2 years ago and signed up with bt,turned out to be a soul destroying experience with their customer service.
Initially it took them 3 months to get me connected ,the wiring was in place from previous owner, all that was needed was a few jumpers connected at the exchange.
Internet speeds was non existent running between .01 and .03 meg,both my neighbours were on 2 to 3 meg.
After countless phone calls and e mails for 12 months nothing was done, in the end i gave up.
Jumped to plus net and they sorted it out within a couple weeks.

I've been with Orange since the late 90s which is now EE,if BT come anywhere near them i'll be looking for for another mobile provider asap.

It's a bit sad how they've sunk this low,they used to be a good company,i should know i used to work for them 🙂

You do realise Plusnet are part of the BT Group?

You do realise Plusnet are part of the BT Group?

[i]I moved house 2 years ago and signed up with bt,turned out to be a soul destroying experience with their customer service.
Initially it took them 3 months to get me connected ,the wiring was in place from previous owner, all that was needed was a few jumpers connected at the exchange.
Internet speeds was non existent running between .01 and .03 meg,both my neighbours were on 2 to 3 meg.
After countless phone calls and e mails for 12 months nothing was done, in the end i gave up.
Jumped to plus net and they sorted it out within a couple weeks.[/i]

You also need to understand the relationship that Openreach have with BT (and the other providers) - and who does what / owns what.

My experience of moving 2 years ago is that we'd gone back +20 years because the forced split with Openreach meant no one really benefits anymore.

I knew plus net was affiliated in some ways, what sold it for me was the plus net customer service is based in the uk and you could also talk to someone in the tech dept who had an idea what they were talking about and not reading from a sheet 🙂
Nvever once saw a an openreach engineer in 15 months with bt,they kept telling me there was nothing wrong and it was my equipment that was at fault.
To be honest there tech dept was like talking with 3 year olds,did my head in so many times.
Changed to plus net and open reach were there within a week,they did 3 visits in all in,took couple of weeks until it was fixed.
It was a complcated fault as there was a mismatch in resistance on the A and B were the internet would just drop down in speed to accommodate the mismatch.
BT were not interested in fixing it due to needing to change several lengths of dropwire as there was no spare pairs available.
It seemed that plus net had extra leverage to get this done for some reason.
I'll say once again! BT customer service sucks and i will stay clear of them from now on.

the heady days of holding for 40mins to talk to someone make me all misty eyed

Maybe BT has gone misty eyed and needs to buy back such customer services.

British Gas customer services was worse. much much worse.

Oooo… another rebranding for Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange/EE… hopefully something to keep me busy next year.

"[url= http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31144009 ]BT[/url] Telecoms group has bought the mobile operator EE for £12.5bn."
🙁

Thing is they had to do this - when 4G is rolled out properly there will be thousands of people who will abandon their landlines.

They have to have a mobile phone arm.

BEET?.... 🙁

BT CellnEEt?

God, I thought EE's customer service couldn't get worse

yowsers it is all change in the mobile provider market.

this article from last week suggests 3 were set to buy o2

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/23/mobile-network-three-to-buy-o2

3 buy O2 then it's O5 ??

yowsers it is all change in the mobile provider market

more to come, this is a real shake up, Sky forced into promptly buying Telefonica. Someone is going to be left out, I predict TalkTalk.

Sky have not bought Telefonica, they've announced that they'll be launching a mobile service using the Telefonica UK (O2) network. Talks on that deal have been going on for a lot longer than since last week...

The possible purchase of O2 by Li Ka-shing (who also owns Hutchison 3) here in the UK isn't 3 buying O2 it's him acquiring another UK mobile provider, will he choose to merge them? Possibly, equally he may choose to operate them as different brands because they broadly appeal to different customers. That deal has still to be negotiated and then run past a number of regulators so don't expect any substantial news anytime soon.

BT/EE still needs to get through competition approval. There will now be a big push from every UK telco for Openreach to be fully separated (which is long overdue and has been hampering the whole nation).

Sky has just done a national roaming deal with Telefonica, which is good for Telefonica. It puts certainty into their price with Hutch (MVNOs are like pure profit for almost all MNOs) and will lessen the competition challenge there.

In fact, the real problem created here is not about other telco's being left out, but more that we need to ensure that MVNOs are mandated at a regulatory level, which has been seen in other markets where the number of MNOs has consolidated. This is needed to protect the consumer (BT won;t want to trash the value of their purchase by wrecking the retail market, and I can;t see Hutch doing the same if they acquire Telefonica).

Lots of potential shake up actually means that the smaller telcos (like TalkTalk and in the mobile space at least - Virgin) will be well placed to create more retail competition in the market across all four services.

The one that's really in the cold now is Vodafone - Vittorio Calao's allergy to MVNOs has diminished its wholesale business. It bought C&W in the UK to get a fixed line network, and we're all waiting to see what it's actually going to do with it that everyone else isn't already well advanced with.

Sky is a content business, and therefore has to face into a major question: does it want to be a network owner? While it's now going to have a mobile network (national roaming on Telefonica) there's nothing to say that it wants to own a fixed line network.

Virgin and TalkTalk are well placed - both are the closest we have to true quad play providers (which is what's driven this consolidation). TalkTalk's the smallest of the big four fixed line telcos, but is also the one that's driven the changes in the market. Virgin's market is quite specific - separate network away from Openreach - and it's also building a mobile network.

We live in interesting times!

Talks on that deal have been going on for a lot longer than since last week...

Indeed. Even after Sky and Voda were linked. Smart move by Telefonica and Sky.

The one thing I'd add to OMITN's analysis is that Vodafone are moving into consumer fixed/broadband and TV in the UK, matching activity in Spain (purchase of ONO) and Germany (Kabel Deutchland). Vodafone to buy Sky or Liberty Global (or parts of it, particularly Virgin) is another piece of speculation that's been bumbling around for months/years.

(Edit - and Sky entering into MVNO with TEF doesn't rule out a Voda purchase, depends on the contracts. This is a funny industry, Vodafone owned Orange for a while during the Mannesmann takeover).

@beej - the "Vodafone buying TalkTalk" deal has also been rumoured for years as well.

EDIT: @beej's edit - that is true. But the advantage of Sky doing a full MVNO is the ability to unplug the network and plug in elsewhere. In fact, I think the fashion for full MVNOs will grow precisely because the MNO segment is consolidating - hence my feeling that we may end up in a mandated wholesale environment. Which is perfect for consumer competition and takes away much of the "ho's buying who" stress on the market.

Enough of this speculation - gotta get back to work!

Sky have not bought Telefonica, they've announced that they'll be launching a mobile service using the Telefonica UK (O2) network

The one that's really in the cold now is Vodafone

The big question is whether BT will re-new Kevin Bacon's contract 🙂

[b]Kelvin[/b]

Oooo… another rebranding for Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange/EE… hopefully something to keep me busy next year.

haha, it's almost like you have a crystal ball, welcome back btw! 🙂

I was listening to a piece on the radio the other day that was saying that it will almost certainly lead to higher prices due to the reduction in choice. He was a really jolly sounding fella.

The big question is whether BT will re-new Kevin Bacon's contract

Depending on how much cash they have left over, they may have to bring back Buzby.
[img] [/img]

.....some say hiring Kevin Bacon,was one of EE's rasher decisions......

BT need to sort their own house out. Terrible organisation, disorganised uncaring and disgusting customer service. I'm so glad I'm not an EE customer.

cliffyc - Member 
.....some say hiring Kevin Bacon,was one of EE's rasher decisions......

Can see BT marking EE any worse had some shocking customer service since I renewed my last contact.
And if they are the most realiable network I would hate be on the rest. Have a network problem almost once a month.