UK Broadcaster Sky To Launch Mobile Service 32
An anonymous reader sends word that British pay-TV company Sky will launch mobile services next year. UK pay-TV firm Sky is launching a mobile phone service next year in partnership with O2's Spanish parent Telefonica. Sky will use Telefonica UK's wireless network, enabling the satellite broadcaster to offer mobile voice and data services for the first time. It takes Sky into the battle for "quad play", adding mobile to its existing services of internet, landline and TV. Offering all four services is seen as the next big UK growth area for telecoms firms and broadcasters.
It is an attempt to lock in customers (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically it is the same as with many other businesses, they will try to leverage their customer relationships to include more areas(so they get more money from the same customer)
Luckily at least currently the competition in the UK market seems to work fairly well so you still have the competition and choice,
There have been some worrying signs of lesser number of providers lately though so the question is how long will the good situation last.
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If the "lock in" is worth it, why not?
I'm a Sky customer, I get my home phone package (unlimited calls, any time), internet (50Mbps fibre, no cap, no quota, no limit), and TV package (HD, movies, tonnes of entertainment channels, F1 etc) for roughly £75 a month - and my opinion is that its worth paying that for the service I get.
Skys video on demand service is brilliant, and I get access to it on my PC and mobile devices as well.
I've experienced Virgin Media (had it for a couple of years after I moved
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That's actually pretty good. I was paying half that for a BT line and Be ADSL Internet (who I think got bought by Sky anyway).
An extra £30 for Internet five times faster than my ADSL and a TV package.. assuming adding mobile doesnt increase the price that much, I'm in!!
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I couldn't get my MAC (a porting code for those of you not familiar, allowing you easy transfer of your line to another ISP and/or phone provider) fast enough and went for a business-ish-class LLU service through a small independent company at the same line speed and same price; no filters, 12ms round-trip latency to continental europe (germany specifically), static IP, zone control, no quotas, no traffic shaping, no insistence that I run the terrible Sky-approved router, no restrictions at all on what you're allowed to do with your pipe as long as it's not illegal. Everyone else I know on BeThere did the same thing since none of them used Sky TV either and didn't take kindly for being punished for not giving Sky enough money.
In summary: if you don't watch satellite TV (or merely think it's overpriced), the Sky bundles are, IMHO, horrendously overpriced.
Who did you switch to? Be used to a lot the third party unbundling?
Yo dawg, I heard you like to watch video wherever! (Score:2)
So we took your favorite TV provider, and made them an MVNO, too!
With a heavy hitter-partner we'll keep your 4G video streaming quality high, while your bill is on the down-low.
So now you can watch Sky on Sky, as it comes to you through the sky!
Uhm (Score:2)
Sky will use Telefonica UK's wireless network
Really, the one they're about to sell to Hutchinson [cityam.com] (owners of '3'')?
Offtopic but... (Score:1)
...anyone else notice the increased font size of titles and more padding in certain areas?
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It's the gradual infiltration of beta.
And/Or (regarding the massive header font size on main page)
- The invasion of a semi-blind website designer.
- The website designer had to use a 22" monitor today.
- The website designer had Chrome set to 25% zoom in testing and didn't realise.
And/Or (regarding the double paragraphs header under "You may like to read")
- The Website maintainer's Enter key is broken and commits two clicks instead of one
Decent news (Score:3)
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Given the number of mobile providers in the UK has been shrinking fairly dramatically recently, having another big player with big pockets and likely aggressive pricing enter the market is a good thing.
Yes its good - but the main concern is the reducing number of networks. Charges to both MVNOs and individuals could increase with reduced competition in this area
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but if its on O2 network, i might as well go direct, why would i use a 3rd party who owns no infrastructure at all ? what am i paying for ?
They may have different packages which suit you better. I use giffgaff, which runs on O2 and has web only support but is a bit cheaper tahn going to O2 direct.
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Erm.. If Telefonica is selling.... (Score:2)
http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/th... [cnet.com] ... as when three and O2 merge it'll be the biggest cell phone service provider here.. as i doubt the sky dea
I am aware that the competition commission bods will want assurances as they did when Three bought out O2's Irish business however........ it seems to me that perhaps Sky is betting on Three
Kind of makes sense, really .... (Score:1)
Be used to run O2's Service.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/may/04/sky-o2-broadband-deal-transfer
I'm a Sky customer. Their customer service has been pretty good compared to some of the competitors I have had to deal with. Virgin. BT. TalkTalk. All crap. BT (Openreach) and Virgin own most of the fibre in the country.
Sky's customer service is still not as good as Telus' or Shaw Cable's from when I used live in Vancouver.
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SkyNet is here! (Score:1)