Why

[Pipstop78]

Can someone tell me why 02 and virgin decided to merge together? 

[Cleoriff]

@Pipstop78  The official reason was :

Virgin Media and O2 merged to create a stronger competitor in the UK's telecommunications market. The merger was intended to help the companies keep up with 5G technology and offer consumers more choice. 

VM/O2 MERGER 

A real pity that the reality was a loss of 4000 jobs and a pretty appalling customer service

[Enlli]

And now they are to be outdone on the mobile front by the Vodafone / Three merger which will no doubt cause more job losses and a worse service 

[madasaf1sh]

@Pipstop78 

Telefonica wanted out of the UK market and Liberty Global wanted in sort of to expand the VM Service to be a true quad play offering, 

Hence where we are today, having done multiple M&A's in my job, this is not unusual what VMo2 is going through and it always gets worse for a year or 3 then it turns rounds once synergies are in place and people know they have jobs etc 

[Enlli]

Still think the whole combination will be sold off to the likes of vulture capitalists

[Oxonian]

This is the original official press release announcing the merger :- 

LIBERTY GLOBAL AND TELEFONICA TO MERGE THEIR U.K. OPERATIONS CREATING THE LEADING FIXED-MOBILE PROVI...

https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/archive/liberty-global-and-telefonica-to-merge-their-u-k-operations...

There is very little therein about customers but a real focus on making money ! 👍

[Pipstop78]

Good grief what a total mess and all those people who have lost there jobs 

[Enlli]

Yep, and next in line will be Vodafone and Three staff

[Oxonian]

Judging by the reports on the likes of Downdetector @Enlli, it looks like Vodafone have made an early start on the Three switch-off ! 😀 

[japitts]

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@Oxonian wrote:

Judging by the reports on the likes of Downdetector @Enlli, it looks like Vodafone have made an early start on the Three switch-off ! 😀 

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3UK have been running their 3G RAN down since the back end of 2024.

Separately, they've had a core network failure today so I'd guess the downdetector reports are from 2 groups of users.

1: Anyone calling a 3UK user, unable to connect and assuming it's their network.

2: Anyone with a 3UK number ported-out, their current network gets the blame for lack of incoming off-net calls.