It would give 3 and O2 customers more coverage as the O2 masts would be merged into 3 network and O2 customers will be able to use 3 masts
like orange did then they bought T-mobile just hopefully not as badly this time and don't take down overlapping masts or masts they Think we don't need, EE have left some villagers with no EE coverage due to that
That's very unlikely - when Orange and T-Mobile initially merged, users could roam between T-Mobile and Orange masts. The issue was:
1) I make a call using an orange mast as I am driving
2) I lose orange signal
3) My phone switched to T-Mobile signal
4) Transitioning from an Orange site to a T-Mobile site causes the call to drop.
5) I am a customer, seeing signal all the way, being confused why my call has dropped.
Ultimately EE chose to keep T-Mobile sites and become a T-Mobile broadcasting network only... All Orange sites will be turned off. In areas they really believed the T-Mobile coverage is not adequate, the Orange transmitter gets taken down and replaced with a T-Mobile one. So effectively EE became T-Mobile, and a little bit more.
With O2 and 3, the issue is 3 has an agreement under NBNLto share masts. This goes back years where 3 and T-Mobile agreed to share masts. Hence you have EE and 3 using the same sites.
Meanwhile O2 and Vodafone have an agreement - named Cornerstone to share masts. Hence there are effectively 2 underlying networks in the UK.
When O2 and Three merge, a decision will likely be made to either use the 3 masts under the NBNL agreement or to use the O2 masts under the Cornerstone agreement.
A decision will also be made to either make the network an O2 transmitting network or a 3 transmitting network. Due to the dropped call example earlier, it makes no sense to continue broadcasting both O2 and 3 signal simultaneously as all that creates is dropped calls.
So the reception does not just become the whole of 3s signal and the whole of O2s signal merged together, it turns into a strategic decision to cover each area with just one signal.
They will for sure, and it makes sense to, remove the overlapping masts. It will need to become one network, broadcasting one signal, from one provider, to ensure consistency when users switch between sites.
If O2 choose to drop the Vodafone cornerstone agreement, this will leave Vodafone high and dry, as each provider is covering half of the UK each. That will be messy. Although the data network on 3 is far far superior.
Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 02-Feb-16 10:27:45)