BT in talks with EE

[MatthewL]

Just read here.

 

BT had a mobile company and sold it, now they realise they are loosing out, maybe they should gets things right at home before buying out other companies.

[localzuk]

It doesn't work out badly for them, considering they sold O2 for £18bn, which is £24.11bn in today's money. They are now buying EE for £12.5bn. Even if you add up O2's profits over the last 9 years, its still not a bad deal!

[GREED]

Unless you are an EE customer soon to be on the same service as BT customers... eeek!

 

And perhaps we should analyse the monopoly with BT owning infrastructure then charging their own customers again for routing calls down that infrastructure they own... but offering that as a discount over other networks where prices will increase forcing the market to go to a 'cheaper' EE...

 

OfCom are already getting twitchy about this before anything happens. IMO I should finally give cause to properly look at the dominance BT have over telecommunications infrastructure

[localzuk]

I reckon this'd be the perfect time for OpenReach and Wholesale to be spun off into a separate business to be honest. Then you have the infrastructure provider separate to the end seller.

[GREED]

It goes against their vision of having the complete package of TV mobile bb and phone line... like Virgin

[Joanne]

URGH.. I hate BT. My home phone, broadband and mobile are with EE (although will be out of contract on both soon)... but if BT buy them I will probably move away... although the EE broadband stuff goes through all the BT stuff and I haven't had any issues.... hmmmmm....

[abillybob]

Does this mean EE broadband will turn into BT broadband...?

[Arthur]

Does this mean EE broadband will turn into BT broadband...?

Almost certainly.

[hardtailstar]

rubbish. just took out an EE contract.

[Joanne]

Bet they will call it BTEE. LOLZ.

[halbaradkenafin]

Luckily my EE contract runs out in a few months and I was considering shopping around anyway, need more data on my plan for the longer commutes I'm doing now.

[Garacesh]

Does this mean EE broadband will turn into BT broadband...?

If their broadband is anything to go by, EE was already terrible. At my old place it was fantastic, moved house, gladly stayed with them. FREAKIN' ABYSMAL. Ringing them up to try and get it fixed and their tech support was absolutely terrible. Happily with Zen now, still with EE for my phone contract though.

 

Bet they will call it BTEE. LOLZ.

Oh-ho-hoo, is funny because they are called BT and EE, but it still sounds like BT.. Oh-ho-hoo

[Joanne]

When I signed up to EE fibre they slammed me in a new phone line, so it's shiny and fast! Location to the exchange is a massive factor too.

[Garacesh]

Yeah, things were amazing at my old house. Admittedly I only had the 32MB fibre package but I rarely ever had an issue with it, but that means I didn't have a need to contact tech support.

Once I moved house, though, and the new phone line etc.. Took them over a month to get Openreach out to fit the line anyway, and then it was faulty, and then they wanted to charge me £60 for a new filter because the BT one was faulty, and then when I bypassed it and purchased my own filter (which I'm using now, still, and it's fine) it was still no good.. Couldn't even get them to do a line test without having a huge debate about it. Contract with them was almost up, jacked it in, bought Zen, everything is peachy.

[GREED]

TBH I would not be that concerned by the effect on the technology for BB supply, most supplies are just branded versions of BT anyway, they all use the BT infrastructure. It will be the support, costs and probably the % bandwidth on the line based on the contract 'x' company has with BT.

 

The worry will be how the overall services will be affected with this deal, given BT pretty much wont have to play ball with any supplier now they have all communication services, and how they will deal with services to 'competitors' who want to use their infrastructure... or should I say have to.

 

The day we have to worry, when BT becomes 'Tomorrow News' and James Bond steps in, will be when they start up a news channel.

[Garacesh]

most supplies are just branded versions of BT anyway, they all use the BT infrastructure. It will be the support, costs and probably the % bandwidth on the line based on the contract 'x' company has with BT.

Unless you're Virgin, aren't they installing their own infrastructure, which is why there's an £80 install fee?

 

and how they will deal with services to 'competitors' who want to use their infrastructure... or should I say have to.l.

Well if they start screwing over competitors aren't people (or more likely businesses) able to bring a suit against them for monopolization and unfair practice?

[GREED]

Unless you're Virgin, aren't they installing their own infrastructure, which is why there's an £80 install fee?

 

Yes Virgin are the only exception using the old NTL/Cable & Wireless infrastructure. No one but them uses this (by choice!)

 

 

Well if they start screwing over competitors aren't people (or more likely businesses) able to bring a suit against them for monopolization and unfair practice?

 

So long as they can prove it. Perhaps it will just be a discount by BT, or a less-price-increase on BT services. This is where OfCom need to be on their toes. I fully imagine a situation where, lets say, Vodaphone want to renew any line leasing contracts, greatly increase a new deal. Think Premier League TV contracts all over again (a 70% increase over the previous deal).

[Garacesh]

Think Premier League TV contracts all over again (a 70% increase over the previous deal).

You know what, valid point.

 

Personally I'm neither here-not-there about how I feel with this one, actually. On one hand, BT have developed this infrastructure and should not be legally required to allow other companies to use it - so it's fair to charge their competitors a fee to use their lines, and if anyone wants to develop their own nothing should be blocking them from doing so. That being said, IIRC, the infrastructure was subsidised by the government, so charging competitors is a little unfair depending on how much of it BT paid for and how much the government paid for. Plus, if you allow companies to lock out their infrastructure and tell each company to develop their own, you end up with a similar problem that America has with Comcast/Verizon/Whatever-the-third-one-is, where only one ISP is available and if you don't like it, suck it. And nobody wants that.

[GREED]

You know what, valid point.

 

Personally I'm neither here-not-there about how I feel with this one, actually. On one hand, BT have developed this infrastructure and should not be legally required to allow other companies to use it - so it's fair to charge their competitors a fee to use their lines, and if anyone wants to develop their own nothing should be blocking them from doing so. That being said, IIRC, the infrastructure was subsidised by the government, so charging competitors is a little unfair depending on how much of it BT paid for and how much the government paid for. Plus, if you allow companies to lock out their infrastructure and tell each company to develop their own, you end up with a similar problem that America has with Comcast/Verizon/Whatever-the-third-one-is, where only one ISP is available and if you don't like it, suck it. And nobody wants that.

 

I completely agree. I have never been a fan of situations where a company has built up a rep/company/product/infrastructure over many year, and because they are so good at what they do (I use the word good loosely!), they are seen as too good and must do less good to allow others who are clearly not as good to be more good...

 

Microsoft is one example, over the many years and many court cases.

 

However, yes, there was huge investment by the government in the infrastructure, and there continues to be year on year. So how they justify charging nearly £200 line rental PLUS usage for every single line in the UK, as well as government investment, as well as their quite frankly consistently shocking network state, rollout to rural areas and support to existing lines, is beyond me!