If you’ve missed the news then let us enlighten you. BT has recently been in talks with EE regarding an apparent merger, and now they’ve confirmed that they’ve bid a whopping £12.5 billion.
Mobile services
BT are clearly keen to expand their mobile service offering and there were even rumours at the start of 2014 about talks with O2. But what does a merger with EE actually mean?
Well, by purchasing a big mobile telecom like EE they will be able to offer more mobile services. Quad-play is the package, which will see home phone, broadband, TV AND mobile contracts all in one. Massive savings for the customer and a bigger piece of the market for BT.
What does this mean for BT?
BT will officially become the largest service provider in the UK, owning 37.6% of home phone traffic, and with a potential to own 33.8% of what EE currently control within the mobile arena. Does this give BT an unfair advantage?
What does it mean for customers?
Well, chances are customer service could get worse. With the call handlers already struggling with the influx of calls, answering calls on time, and getting the right call to the right person, more calls could certainly be an issue. With the arrival of BT Sport, the company have already admitted to struggling with the amount of subscribers and providing the right level of customer service. Could this mean an even bigger struggle?
Also, how will this affect prices? Spending £12.5 billion on a new area of business is a vast sum of money, money which will have to come from somewhere. Customers’ may see an increase in their bill. But, if you purchase the whole quad-play package it could mean bigger savings for you overall. However, it could also make it harder to switch service providers.
But, a lot of this is just pure speculation from the media, at present. The bid has been made and accepted, but it still needs approval. Will other companies put up a fight and stop BT gaining too much of the market? Watch this space.
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