The UK branch of Deutsche Telecom and France Telekom has announced they are joining forces in a joint venture to offer around 30 million customers “everything, everywhere”.
Following the merger of the two companies, which will be split 50:50 and implemented on 1st July, there won’t be any noticeable difference to start with, not for users anyway, but employees of both T Mobile and Orange will from then on be working for the same company.
T-Mobile and Orange will still retain their own identity and operate under their own names, with separate campaigns, shops and service centres, but for how long who knows.
However, the most exciting bit is that by the end of the year T Mobile and Orange customers will be able to roam across both networks and will have much better coverage and that’s got to be a good thing.
“Together, we are Britain’s biggest communications company, with over 30 million customers” said Tom Alexander, Chief Executive of Everything Everywhere.
Incidentally, 30 million customers amounts to about half of the UK adult population so that’s a fair slice of the cake.
“We are on the verge of a communications revolution. Up until a few years ago, mobile was just about voice and text – not now. Multimedia phones have already started to change the way our customers access the world – for entertainment, education, information – wherever they are, whenever they want” said Alexander.
“That is why, through our scale and Britain’s only super-network with its unsurpassed coverage and capacity, we will be leading this revolution, giving customers instant access to everything, everywhere.
“We are Everything Everywhere – it’s our name, our vision, and our ambition – and we run two of the UK’s biggest brands Orange and T-Mobile. It’s our vision to give our customers instant access to everything everywhere, opening up a world of endless possibilities”.
Mr Alexander also said that T Mobile and Orange have different personalities, with Orange, having a “premium element”, and T-Mobile a “straightforward, value-orientated” proposition.
Combined Everything Everywhere will have more than 700 shops and the company also plans to develop into connected markets such as mobile advertising and mobile commerce, as well as offer the best deals for businesses in Britain.
At the moment, O2 and Vodafone are currently the leaders in the UK but after the merger the German and French owned Everything Everywhere will have a 37 percent share of the British market putting them into pole position.
