Do mobile phone/network providers play silly bugers? Almost boaty.

[Amulet]

Here in Oban, following the recent storms, O2 coverage went down the drain - hopeless. Gather masts lost power or fell over. We survived on EE coverage for both internet and phones.

Today O2 came back with good coverage, and EE went to pieces - from reliable 3G to almost nothing.

Could O2, finding themselves in a hole, simply have bought bandwidth from EE?

 

[lpdsn]

Here in Oban, following the recent storms, O2 coverage went down the drain - hopeless. Gather masts lost power or fell over. We survived on EE coverage for both internet and phones.

Today O2 came back with good coverage, and EE went to pieces - from reliable 3G to almost nothing.

Could O2, finding themselves in a hole, simply have bought bandwidth from EE?

I don't know what the arrangements are between EE and O2, but these days network share agreements and domestic roaming are quite common. However, it wouldn't work as you describe. It's more usually a case that network x can use designated parts of network y's network, but they'd piggy back on top of it not exclude network y's customers. Or they share a cell equally between the two networks. And they wouldn't be short term arrangements.

Sounds like just two independent incidents.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I don't know what the arrangements are between EE and O2, but these days network share agreements and domestic roaming are quite common. However, it wouldn't work as you describe. It's more usually a case that network x can use designated parts of network y's network, but they'd piggy back on top of it not exclude network y's customers. Or they share a cell equally between the two networks. And they wouldn't be short term arrangements.

Sounds like just two independent incidents.

3 phones roam to Orange (part of EE) when necessary, and 3 were supposed to be 3G mast sharing with T-Mobile (also part of EE) but I don't know if that ever went through. There has been some speculation about 3 buying O2, and the complications there would be from unpicking all the roaming agreements.

It does sound like two separate incidents in this case, though. Perhaps both O2 and EE masts were damaged, but the EE one kept going while a repair team who had been working on the O2 mast completed the job and turned the EE one off to mend it.

In that part of the world I carry both a 3 phone (3 and EE) and a tesco one (virtual network on O2) and between them I find I get reasonably good coverage most of the time.

 

[lpdsn]

There has been some speculation about 3 buying O2, and the complications there would be from unpicking all the roaming agreements.

That's already happened in Ireland.

 

[Richard10002]

I thought BT were buying O2?

 

[KAL]

I thought BT were buying O2?

IIRC, BT sold Cellnet, which was rebranded O2. They wanted to buy it back but last I heard, they were punting for EE.

 

[charles_reed]

IIRC, BT sold Cellnet, which was rebranded O2. They wanted to buy it back but last I heard, they were punting for EE.

BT sold out O2 for about £18 billion to Telfonica in 2005, They are now making a bid for EE, which is about 40% larger than O2/ Cellnet when they sold it, for £12.5 billion. A number of BT shareholders, having enjoyed the fruits of the £5.5billion difference are now complaing because of share dilution with the new shares being issued to Telefonica.
The original operation was a 50/50 split with Securicor, who were bought out. The big value-addition by BT was the introduction of EDGE packet radio, just before they sold Cellnet/O2.
I once thought BT had lost their way, but with the squeaks coming from all their competitors and the feeble admonitions from OFCOM, I suspect they're riding high.
Hubris always comes before the Gods cast one down - but I don't think I'll be selling my shares yet.

 

[Birdseye]

It will be interesting to see how BT do. They should be OK in the broadband market until satellite coverage really gets going and that could be some time. But I still see their TV efforts to rival Sky as doomed. Sky are just too far ahead in content terms. I certainly dont see any merit in them getting back into mobile phone coms - its a pure commodity market. High volume , low price, no product differentiation. In short the only attractive bit of BT is its monopoly network.

I'll hang onto my shares for the moment - Vodaphone is going nowhere anyway..

 

[Minchsailor]

Vodafone are in the doghouse on Mull. I gather from 'somebody who knows' that they are having problems with a relay station on Islay that is proving obstinate to cure. The local taxi drivers are furious.

Apart from that all the mobile Cos. seem to have forgotten NW Scotland. I find O2 is the best of a bad bunch.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I thought BT were buying O2?

No. BT sold O2 when it was BT Cellnet, and are now stalking Vodafone.