O2 – Three merger blocked by European Commission May 11, 2016 The European Commission competition regulator has blocked the planned takeover of O2 by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison. The deal would have seen Telefonica’s O2 merge with Hutchison's UK network Three in a deal valued at £10.25bn. The tie up would have reduced the mobile operators in the UK to three, leaving just Vodafone and BT’s EE to challenge the merged [...]
Why the advertising watchdog is taking issue with broadband providers May 4, 2016 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) announced this morning that it would be cracking down on misleading broadband price claims in adverts, but what's all the fuss about? Here are the top three ways that broadband companies have been accused of misleading customers: Too much mental maths involved Let's be honest: nobody enjoyed doing sums sans calculator [...]
Report commissioned by Channel 4 argues privatising broadcaster would be “overwhelmingly negative” May 4, 2016 Privatising Channel 4 would be “overwhelmingly negative” and could attract a maximum £500m, according to a new report commissioned by the broadcaster. The government is currently considering whether to sell off the channel, which is publicly owned but privately funded. Culture secretary John Whittingdale recently talked up the prospect of selling Channel 4, saying it [...]
TalkTalk reveals plans to scrap separate line rental charge in UK industry first May 3, 2016 TalkTalk, the telecoms company that was last year the victim of a high profile data leak, has announced it will soon stop separating out line rental from broadband prices. The move, which will come into force in the Autumn this year, comes ahead of a crack down by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on price transparency this week. The fiercely competitive [...]
Virgin Media pledges fibre broadband expansion to one million premises by 2019 April 27, 2016 Virgin Media has announced that it will be rolling out fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband for one million homes and businesses over the next few years. The plans are part of Virgin Media’s £3bn expansion to grow its overall network by four million premises by 2019. Rivals BT and Sky are currently trialling FTTP or deploying it in smaller [...]
CMA urges European Commission to force Three or O2 sell-off before approving Telefonica-Hutchison 3G merger April 11, 2016 The head of the CMA has written to the European Commission, warning that the merger between Hutchison 3G and Telefonica would create "a significant impediment to effective competition" in the British telecoms market. The £10.25bn deal, which was agreed in March 2015, has been undergoing a lengthy probe by the European Commission. In January Ofcom came out against [...]
London has the worst 4G download speeds – but these are the best and worst networks March 31, 2016 Ever feel like it's taking forever to download the latest episode of your favourite TV show to catch up with on the way to work? Londoner's in fact suffer the worst download speeds of five major cities in the UK tested for 4G mobile network performance by Ofcom. Read more: One simple map showing UK's mobile coverage by poscode Residents of the [...]
Vodafone gets its wires crossed with customers as it becomes the most complained about March 30, 2016 Vodafone has become the UK's most complained about mobile phone provider following a surge of complaints in the final months of 2015. The UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom has said it recorded 32 complaints for every 100,000 of Vodafone's pay-monthly subscribers in the last quarter of 2015. This was a major surge, more than double the amount of [...]
Why we should worry about the Three O2 merger March 30, 2016 It won’t have escaped your notice that Three and O2 want the path cleared for a £10.5bn merger. Even with the owner of Three – Hutchison – proposing to keep O2 operationally separate, it would still leave Three/O2 with a 40 per cent market share. Ofcom has sounded alarm bells, and been uncharacteristically vociferous in its opposition. While [...]
Switching mobile networks is about to become much easier under new proposals from Ofcom March 23, 2016 Changing your mobile phone provider is about to become much easier. Regulators have put forward new proposals to make switching networks easier for customers. Ofcom has suggested two options, its preferred one being the new provider handling the switch. "It is unacceptable for people to be missing out on better mobile deals because they fear the hassle of [...]