Comments for Vodafone & O2 Table £3.5bn Bids for T-Mobile UK

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Ben

10:37 AM on 7 September, 2009

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It's looking increasingly like T-Mobile is going to go, one way or the other, isn't it. I can't make up my mind whether this will be a good or a bad thing at the moment.





On the one hand you've got the mobile operators still reeling from massive write-downs on the outrageously overpriced 3G licences they bid for in that crazy auction, who now find themselves in a cut-throat market where pressure on margins could potentially be limiting investment.





On the other you've got consumers benefitting from tariffs conceived in a fiercely competitive environment, and the choice of 5 physical networks and countless MVNOs.





Whether, long term, it will be better to maintain a relatively large number of physical networks or allow them to consolidate is probably something we wont know for years. By then, of course, it will be too late.