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Originally Posted by Telly Bear
Slighty old news and some may know already but it seems Sky want to buy the parts of Everything Everywheres network it has to sell aspart of the T-Mobile Orange merger.
Or perhaps buy up 3uk which is a better idea I think, I really like this idea and would snap up a Sky mobile for a quad-play one bill. Thoughts? This wouldnt be a piggy back virtual network like VM but a proper Sky mobile network.
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It's not in BskyB's pipeline, after careful consideration, the UK has a very saturated market and after all the advertising and marketing plus the cost of maintaining the network as well as the amount they would spend on leased lines and dependence on other fixed line networks for data services, it would not generate much revenue further more, it is pay monthly contract customers who generate much of the revenue for mobile phone networks and since everyone has a mobile phone these days, most people locked in 18 and 24 month contracts and in Vodafone cases 36 months, after all the money spent, the network would be sitting there empty. Furthermore, what would be different about Sky's mobile network? The existing 4/5 provide everything you expect from a mobile phone, also retentional deals to stop people leaving by each of the existing network operators would squeeze Sky out as after investing in a new mobile network, Sky would have to compete with the likes of 3 who can afford to give out phones on the cheap and low cost tariffs, as a new entrant to the market, it would be beyond Sky's budget and in turn would be lucky to make a break even.
Nevertheless, Deutsche Telekom have been looking at options around T-Mobile UK operations and its 50% stake in Everything Everywhere, this would go up for sale and Sky could possibly be one of the bidders, however I have a feeling, France Telecom may acquire the remaining 50% and rebrand the whole operation as Orange, and the excess spectrum to be sold off to BT. Deutsche Telekom are more interested in developing countries as they feel that the UK has a very saturated market, and it does, everyone has a mobile or access to a telephone or payphone that can call a mobile and they feel that they cannot achieve any higher than they can.
BT seem to be working with Everything Everywhere and could be the perfect one to take over that spectrum as rather than promote a new mobile network, they can use it for existing services as well as provide 3G and 4G alternatives in rural locations, it could also be used for BT Mobile Broadband customers,BT Business Mobile and any remaining BT Personal Mobile customers as currently they lease the Vodafone network for this.
Furthermore, BT would be more successful at a mobile phone network as they would not have to pay for the use of the BT network or leased lines or for data services and would also not have to pay for Emergency services or anything like that, T-Mobile is also considering selling its Dutch operation and as most mobile networks operate internationally and since BT has a virtual network in Holland, it would make sense for BT to acquire 3,the excess spectrum from Everything Everywhere and the Dutch T-Mobile operation. The German O2 network may also go up for sale as well as some other Telefonica O2 assets as the company has a £48 Billion debt mountain, if BT acquired all these it would retain its international mobile strategy which it had sell off years ago.