topic Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks in Discussions & Feedback

O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Sat, 02 May 2020 12:52:40 GMT

I know that according to the news article I read on Google News, they are only in talks but should an O2 and Virgin merger happen, would this benefit existing O2 customers? I was a T-Mobile customer when the T-Mobile / Orange merger (EE) was happening and it was not a good customer experience at all. Customers faced a hike in plan costs, forced to change plans, upgrade deals were poor, loss of signal when they were switching over the networks. Customer services went down the pan, billing was always wrong. SIM card changes left Orange customers without a phone number as the porting process went stupid and all customer perks were lost such as the once famous Orange Wednesday's. I don't think I can face going through all of that again! I know that Virgin have their own network infrastructure and that they don't just use EE's anymore which is why they are saying when they move over to Vodafone next year that customers won't have to change SIM cards.

I'm wondering what your thoughts are as customers? Would you be happy about this? I'm personally not a fan of Virgin. I guess time will tell what actually happens.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

jonsie — Sat, 02 May 2020 12:57:30 GMT

I was quite happy about it when I read it this morning. I have both Virginmedia and O2 and Virgin have a stake in Vodafone too so not sure how it will work out but hopefully a stronger network with more mast sharing with them both

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/01/virgin-and-o2-plan-merger-to-challenge-sky-and-bt

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Sat, 02 May 2020 13:02:21 GMT

@jonsie I'm looking forward to the part of mast sharing, although I'm not so sure that it would affect me because I know that Virgin use the EE mast currently which is close to my house and they don't have a mast of their own here. I don't have Virgin Media as I don't live in a cable area. I live in a rural Nottinghamshire village that doesn't have gas or cable. I have TalkTalk for my broadband and have had them for the past 4 years.

When I say I'm not a Virgin fan, I'm strictly speaking about their mobile network.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

jonsie — Sat, 02 May 2020 13:07:22 GMT

I don't have a Virgin sim, never been tempted as I've heard nothing good about them in that respect.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Sat, 02 May 2020 13:13:52 GMT

They're really bad as a mobile network. The customer services are shocking. I just don't want it to be a similar thing to EE where they removed the great customer service that T-Mobile had and used the rubbish customer services that Orange had. O2 have brilliant customer services and that's a concern for me that they could get rid of that and use their own if Virgin take over full control of everything. We can only speculate, I'm sure things will work out better than EE if it happens. I hope

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Bambino — Sat, 02 May 2020 15:52:15 GMT

Fewer network providers means less choice for the consumer and less need for the remaining providers to feel any need to compete for customers. It's a bad idea.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

TallTrees — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:10:33 GMT

Hi @Oxygen87
Not a fan of Virgin either.
Trepidation.
Mergers mean less not more.
When I read that I was depressed.
Hope it doesn't happen 🤬

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:13:07 GMT

I have to agree with you both @Bambino @TallTrees phone plans are expensive enough without them going further through the roof. Also, no more carphone warehouse for O2 also means less competition to buy their plans which could mean increased prices.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Bambino — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:23:06 GMT

@Oxygen87 wrote:
Also, no more carphone warehouse for O2 also means less competition to buy their plans which could mean increased prices.

Not 'could' @Oxygen87, will. If the customer is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, they will most likely just stay where they are and be forced to cough up whatever the network wants them to.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:29:01 GMT

@Bambino prices definitely soared when Phones4U was killed off by the networks. I think the aim is probably for the same fate to happen to Carphone Warehouse which is very sad. Phones4U were my favourite. I always upgraded through them.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Bambino — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:35:23 GMT

@Oxygen87 Whenever there are mergers of major companies, the two groups who suffer the most are the employees of both merged companies, and ultimately the customer. This eventual end of this current crisis will most likely see a lot more of that.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Sat, 02 May 2020 16:55:15 GMT

Agreed @Bambino

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

sheepdog — Mon, 04 May 2020 20:44:28 GMT

Think we can say goodby to the Virgin Media brand if this happens. Basically the brand now has the baggage of Billionaire Beggar Branson which his empire isn't going to last without either collapsing into administration or be sold off at a bargain price so this maybe the last we see of the Virgin brand itself.

Apart from the Vodafone link, its an infrastructure merger in reality as neither has assets in either field but combined, they become a major telcoms prescence. Of course, it depends on a couple of things -

1) What exactly is merging, is the o2 brand and network excluding the masts

2) The entire Telefonica estate and assets in the UK. That if split, doesn't really value o2 as much. I mean, o2 then becomes just a call centre company. Which is outsourced so you then have debt vehicle to pile into and create tax writeoff.

Also given the state of the financial markets, raising the money i.e. debt to pay for is going to be difficult. So short summary: higher bills forever.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Mon, 04 May 2020 20:50:24 GMT

@sheepdog I'll see when I next upgrade but I'm not prepared to pay much more per month than I'm already paying so if it becomes more expensive, it looks like I'll be off to Three or Vodafone because I hate EE 😞

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2020 17:48:04 GMT

I ported out from Virgin Mobile as then was nearly 15 years ago after being a PAYG customer for four years as I got fed up of the rubbish coverage and, when I did have to ring them, the waits of 40+ minutes only to deal with someone who would be clicking stuff on a screen without any real idea what they were doing.

The long waits were I think par for the course as after 20 minutes the system would ask if you wanted to change the music you were listening to.

While Branson should be applauded for not moving the Virgin Money operation out of Newcastle I can't think of much else he's done except made shedloads of cash from licencing his brand.

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Cleoriff — Thu, 07 May 2020 06:49:41 GMT

So the merger has happened.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52570593

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

TallTrees — Thu, 07 May 2020 12:07:38 GMT

Sadness
Will the merger be scrutinised.
Don't like Virgin
As @sheepdog says...
Especially billionaire beggar Branson

There's something unlikeable about him.

Misery misery 😪😪😪

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

sheepdog — Thu, 07 May 2020 12:52:21 GMT

I'm quoting from the BBC link above which is quoted from the release that I've seen yet, so:

"O2 [is] to be transferred into the joint venture on a debt-free basis, while Virgin Media to be contributed with £11.3bn of net debt and debt-like items," the firms said in a joint statement."

So Virgin Media takes on debt and o2 has none? Er, so it is a debt vehicle to be abused then.

More importantly, apart from the impending name rebrand of o2 & VM, isn't the question really: are we living in the last days of the o2 forum?

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Thu, 07 May 2020 13:03:47 GMT

Doesn't it have to go through Ofcom etc first?

Re: O2 / Virgin Merger Talks

Oxygen87 — Thu, 07 May 2020 13:04:45 GMT

If not then it's RIP O2 2001-2020 😞 sad times.