T-Mobile and Orange Testing Dual-Branded Retail Stores
T-Mobile and Orange have announced that they are testing six new retail stores that will be dual branded with both company identities.
The trial takes the form of a concession-within-store format, so for the three T-Mobile stores, there will be an Orange concession inside showcasing the best offers, plans and devices from Orange and likewise for the Orange store hosting the T-Mobile concession. Both brands will be firmly displayed in the window but with the host brand taking the overall lead.
In addition, Everything Everywhere is also opening up three Orange franchises in time for Christmas trading following the successful Orange franchise pilot in Bridlington ran by Shebang. The new Orange franchises will be run by local entrepreneurs who have successfully run franchises in the past. The three new Orange franchises form part of an ongoing franchise trial for the Orange footprint which is looking to extend the reach of the Orange brand into places where it has little presence. More franchises are expected to open in 2011.
Orange and T-Mobile to offer Apple iPad
Orange and T-Mobile are all set to launch Apple’s iPad in subsidized form.
According to reports, both operators will be able to make the iPad seem like a more affordable proposition for Christmas.
That price is markedly lower than the subsidized version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, the cheapest contract deal on that being US$639.99, which isn’t much less than the SIM-free cost anyway.
Orange and T-Mobile, who have recently formed a merger under the umbrella name Everything Everywhere, will begin to offer iPads at around US$320.8 mark for customers willing to sign up to an 18 or 24 month contract.
UK Joint Venture achieves 12,000 joint 3G Base Station
According to UK based network infrastructure joint venture, it has now delivered more than 12,000 consolidated 3G sites for T-Mobile UK and Hutchison 3G UK (Three). The company, Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) is a network joint-venture between Three and Everything Everywhere – itself the merged UK arms of Orange and T-Mobile.
The consolidation of the two networks has included the switching off of more than 5,000 sites – more than 2,000 of which have already been fully decommissioned.
Ericsson was the key service provider for the project and was responsible for network design and deployment, the acquisition and building of sites, capacity management, equipment swaps and vital upgrades. Millions of man-hours were committed by Ericsson to improve speeds and coverage for Three and T-Mobile customers.
Nokia Siemens Networks, MBNL’s sole 3G equipment supplier, provided the entire site installation work, third line operational support services, and spare parts and upgrades.
BT Wholesale provided the Ethernet backhaul to support delivery of mobile voice and data traffic to thousands of cell sites across the country. BT Wholesale’s work will also ensure the MBNL network continues to meet the capacity needs of the parent company’s customers. BT began work on delivering the managed service project in June 2009 and since then several hundred BT employees have been involved in delivering this project as planned.
Arqiva, the communications infrastructure and media services company, is MBNL’s planned cell site partner and has provided 5,100 sites to the consolidation project.
According to Emin Gurdenli, Vice President of Network Services at Everything Everywhere, network coverage and capacity is vital in providing a great customer experience so the success of MBNL in delivering 12,000 3G sites is great news for T-Mobile customers. The integration of a large number of former Orange cell sites into the network will also provide enhanced capacity and coverage to all of the company’s customers.
Big 3G Network Savings for Three and T-Mobile
Prior to Everything Everywhere being formed and the amalgamation of Orange and T-Mobile within it, Three had an agreement with T-Mobile to share a certain amount of their network transmitters etc. The agreement between Three and T-Mobile resulted in MBNL, the network joint-venture being formed.
Now that to Everything Everywhere is official and in place, the deal with MBNL remains in place. This means that Three and T-Mobile share 12,000 3G sites around the UK.
The sharing of sites includes: transmitters, base station equipment and backhaul connected to the operator’s core networks, the result is greater 3G coverage. There are also cost savings because in addition to sharing the costs for the 12,000 3G sites another 5000 will be turned off resulting in a much larger saving.
A number of companies have supported the project and these are Ericsson, BT Wholesale, BT and Arqiva.
Everything Everywhere drops legal challenge against UK spectrum auction plans (UK)
Everything Everywhere, the JV between T-Mobile UK and Orange UK, has dropped its legal challenge against the UK government over spectrum legislation- potentially concreting the way for the country to hold mobile broadband spectrum auctions in 2012 as planned.
According to reports citing the company, they have decided to withdraw their threatened legal action and are content to take chances when it comes to influencing the rules for future spectrum auctions.
Everything Everywhere had objected to proposed legislation that did not include a cap on the amount of low frequency airwaves that a single operator could own. Unlike Everything Everywhere, rivals O2 and Vodafone both already own spectrum at 900MHz, which they are trying to re-farm for new mobile services.
Orange and T-Mobile Start Sharing UK Networks
T-Mobile and Orange have started sharing UK networks. The subscribers of both the networks can now roam onto each others networks as one of the results of the merger of the two companies.
To get started with the services the subscribers have to register via the operators’ websites – www.orange.co.uk/share or www.t-mobile.co.uk/share to receive an update to their SIM card. After this service is activated, if a customer loses signal on their existing network, they will automatically get the signal from the other network where it’s available.
The two company’s will launch a combined Orange and T-Mobile advertising campaign to promote the service.
According to Tom Alexander, CEO of Everything Everywhere (the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile), today’s switch-on is the culmination of a unique and hugely complex technical project. But the result is simple -the customers now get two networks for the price of one. That means 27 million consumers can now keep close to the people, places and things that matter to them in more places than ever before. This is the first step in the vision of giving company’s customers an instant access to whatever they want, wherever they are – instant access to everything, everywhere.
Next year customers can also expect benefits such as automatically switching to whichever of the two networks has the strongest signal while they’re mid-call, and enhanced data and internet coverage.
Everything Everywhere planning to sack 1,200 staff in a restructuring exercise
Everything everywhere is not going right for the entity ‘Everything Everywhere’ created by merger of Orange and T-Mobile in UK. Orange and T-Mobile earlier created ‘Everything Everywhere’ based on network sharing agreement to combine their network to create a network that is bigger than both Vodafone and O2 to give both the brand a distinct competitive edge.
Consumers though will not be affected as the two brands will continue to operate as different service providers. The merger is about infrastructure sharing that will allow subscribers of the operators roam across both networks i.e. some 18,000 antenna towers and Base Stations. The network claims to cover 99.6 percent of population with 3G capabilities by 2014.
The recently declared Q2 results however presents a different perspective as for the three months ended June 30, Everything Everywhere posted an 18.5 per cent fall in operating profits and a revenue decline of 5.3 per cent. To make things even worse the consumer KPIs have also plunged taking ARPU to US$ 57.18 a month
Everything Everywhere is playing orthodox to resolve the problem – Sack a portion of staff that falls under Duplication of Roles†across the merged entity. Sources confirms that some 1,200 i.e. 7.4% of the workforce will be affected by the decision.
The representative confirmed that company needs to ensure that they are operating with maximum efficiency, effectively serving the two brands while removing any unnecessary duplication from the business and, above all, making sure that they are set up to deliver for the future. It is therefore regrettable that some roles will need to be removed from the combined business.
Everything Everywhere brand plan unveiled by Stephen (UK)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Everything Everywhere, the new joint venture of Orange and T-Mobile UK has announced to use the same campaign technique used by the two companies for promotion but potentially with the new umbrella branding appearing as part of a tagline in the ads.
The vision behind the new parent company has been explained by Steven Day, currently chief of staff and communications for Orange and soon to become vice president of brands and communications of Everything Everywhere.
Though the marketing departments for both brands will remain in-house under the Everything Everywhere name, it will be split into brand teams. The full structural plan is still under the process and mobile adverting will be a core part of its plans going forward.
According to Stephen, brands can operate simultaneously, side by side, and appeal to different segments of the market, and will work hard to ensure that the multiple brand strategy works for both these brands while the Everything Everywhere name will support marketing materials on both so consumers know the benefits the company has to offer, and what each network can offer them suited to their lifestyle
