Moany old O2 and Vodafone have been rather outspoken about this whole EE LTE thing. Clearly they aren’t happy, and now they’re forming a tag-team to take on Orange and T-Mobile’s combo.
Suggested names (by us) include Vo2 and O daFone. Pretty good, no? Rubbish names aside, the Office of Fair Trading heartily approves of the merger.
The plan is essentially to create one big giant network supporting two independent – and indeed competing – companies. Ah, so they mightn’t need a silly Everything Everywhere-style name after all.
The pair will easily meet Ofcom’s 2017 deadline for 98% population coverage, with indoor 2, 3 and even 4G by 2015.
Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefónica UK, purred: "This partnership is about working smarter as an industry, so that we can focus on what really matters to our customers – delivering a superfast network up to two years faster than Ofcom envisages and to as many people as possible.
“One physical grid, running independent networks, will mean broader coverage and, crucially, investment in innovation and better competition for the customer. We look forward to Ofcom's spectrum auction and the release of 800 spectrum."
Vodafone UK’s CEO, Guy Laurence, adds: "This is excellent news for British consumers, businesses and the wider economy: we are promising indoor coverage for 98% of the UK population across all technologies within three years.
“We will bring the best mobile coverage that this country has ever enjoyed to more people than ever before. Our existing customers will benefit on the devices that they have today and we will lay the foundations for the real 4G network they will want tomorrow."
