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THE MOBILE PHONE operator Three has bought O2′s Irish operation from Telefonica for around €850 million, it has been announced this morning.
The sale has been announced by the Spanish mobile giant Telefonica, which owned O2, which said that it has sold the operation to the Irish subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, Three.
The deal means that O2 will no longer exist with Robert Finnegan, CEO of Three Ireland, telling Newstalk’s Breakfast programme that the O2 branding will disappear once the deal is complete.
The sale is subject to competition approvals at an EU level with €780 million paid up front and a further €70 million dependent on the achievement of “agreed financial objectives” according to Telefonica.
The sale means that Three and O2 combined will control around 37.5 per cent of the Irish mobile phone network and will have around two million active users.
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Does this mean the nightmare customer service will remain in Mumbai, just as well I’m not a customer of theirs anymore.
Nicest people you could ever wish to encounter, but its such a long drawn out process. Talk about using 100 words when 5 would do. Bloody hell it’d drive you berserk.
If you don’t want to deal with the call centre in Mumbai then call in-store. There’s a Three store near everyone. It’s as simple as that.
It’s the most impossible customer service department ever. You can’t even speak to anyone in Ireland when you want to complain about the Indian service
The customer service is dire. So ling winded and slow. My contract is up in 2 months and was going to move back to O2 .
I’ve been with Vodafone, O2 and now I’m with three and I gotta admit the three are far and away the best value and coverage by far. Yes, customer service is kinda tragic and long winded but overall they are way better value than the other rip off networks
Three used to “piggy back” of O2 and Vodafone. No wonder they have the best coverage, they have the best of both worlds…
They’re still piggy-backing on Vodafone.
I always talk to Waterford CS. Very rarely have to. Have been with 3 since 2005
Been with Three for quite a while. Call Crntre in Mumbai impossible, butthe Irish reps on boards.ie are par excellence. The service itself is 100%.
There is an Irish line but they keep moving and make it very very hard to get. Keep playing with the menu. You will find it.
At least 3 answer the phone where as you’ll be on hold to o2 for ages
Their answer in store to any problem is “you’ll have to call customer care”
Well that’s me porting to another carrier. Three has chronic customer service. Out ze gap for me.
How do you contact Waterford c/s? What’s the number?
Hi Karl. Its not easy. They hey keep moving git around the menu to play hide and seek with it. Last I heard it was down as technical support. But your going to have to just keep trying.
What does this mean for sponsorship and branding rights e.g. The O2?
They’ll rename it the three?
Barry, lets meet in the middle and call it The 2.5.
They might still keep the brand!
Hopefully this will mean better coverage by Three. They have some excellent bundles, be interesting to see how they take on vodafone now.
Third paragraph Shane:
“The deal means that O2 will no longer exist with Robert Finnegan, CEO of Three Ireland, telling Newstalk’s Breakfast programme that the O2 branding will disappear once the deal is complete.”
That’s 2nd class level reading, surely you could have managed that?
Think I read the O2 brand will be phased out over 2 – 3 years
Bit of a nightmare for their marketing alright – Irish people find it hard enough to pronounce their ‘TH’s as it is!
“Da tree” ?
@Rob
On newstalk CEO said over “two [line breaks]“. To me it sounds like “weeks” but that’s definitely not possible, so I guess he did say years.
But what they mean by phasing it out could be any number of things. They could immediately discontinue the brand and packages for new customers, or co-brand all stores (O2 and 3).
But I imagine sponsorship will be among the first to change. Theirs no point in using them to promote the name you’re ultimately phasing out.
Also, I think it is very possible 4G services will not launch under the O2 brand at all (similar to the way EE are using that to phase out Orange and T-Mobile)
Or I could see them launching it just before the deal closes, and then promptly discontinuing 4G under the O2 brand.
My suggestion: forget the 2 and the 5 and just call it the “.” – or perhaps “the point” – has a nice ring to it…
You feel like your talking to a computer when call 3.
O2 had lost interest in its irish business years ago. Didn’t even try to keep me as a customer (which i was for 6 years) when i went shopping for a new phone and monthly plan.
O2 Ireland made alot more profits than O2 UK
Im leaving them. They are tebible. Worst company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
I have been with all the major providers. Staying with 3 for best value. I can call uk mobiles or landlines for no extra charge. Cant beat that. I found meteor service the worst
Right now I am in NUI Maynooth. I have no signal or 3G. They have the worst customer service I have ever dealt with in my life and their harrasive methods of business dealings are just disgraceful. Cannot wait to get away form them.
Yeah I agree Sean, 3 Ireland are an absolute nightmare never again.
I actually like three as a company, their price point for phone contracts and broadband always made sure that the other big operators couldn’t continue to extort money from everyone. They’re sort of the ryanair of the operators – some love them, some hate them. But without them we’d be paying more.
I changed from 3 to O2 coz they’re customer service is MUCK…. FML
And I changed from o2 to emobile because their service was a joke
Guys while everyone is on the bandwagon about customer care and dealing with people that you can’t understand, did any of you think about all the guys that work for O2? Between the head office, Irish call centre and retail stores that means a lot of redundancies. They’ll harder keep 2 stores open when 1 will do. This is a big shock and a loss to the phone industry
And the Poor Landlords who now must put up their shops for lease all over again. Think of the stress they must be going through. The Poor Craters.
Might not be as bad as that
Good point Louise and I hope all the call centre people in O2 Limerick, who I did business with some years back, will be OK.
Does it go back to being The Point now? Or even the 3 Point? :-P
Actually a bit worried now, I’m an O2 Customer (refugee from Meteor) and I’ve heard 3 are crap on many levels.
Of maybe .3?
I am a three customer. Being foreign myself, I have nothing racist in me but I had to deal with customer service over the phone quite a few times and OMG can’t understand most of the workers!! Don’t want to be rude and asked them to repeat all the time so now, I just go to a three shop and deal with understandable managers or assistant.
Whatever people say, three has very good deals for mobiles.
Side point but how does being foreign exclude you from being racist?
To me, racist people would stay in their own country and hate everybody foreign come into their own country. But that’s just the way I see it ;)
Three buying O2 is a good match as they were both horrible to be a customer of. Vodafone or Meteor all the way. God help all the poor O2 customers who now have to spend the rest of their contract talking to the Mumbai crew. I’d sooner Shane’s with Freddy Cruger.
Rip off Vodafone. Are you crazy??
Suprise, suprise, Telifonica are selling O2. I was a customer of O2 for 10 years or so, but about 18 months ago I left. First they closed customers email addresses, then the mobile broadband began to slow down, then s l o w e d down, even after 3 months they could not fix the speed, then it would be down for whole weekends. I asked O2 customer support what was going on were they pulling out of Ireland? They told me they were “upgrading” the system and were committed to the Irish market. The funny thing is I moved my phone to Tesco Mobile, which runs on the O2 network, but has a much better service than O2, for me at least.
Looks like I was right, bye bye O2 & Telefonica, don’t let the door hit your ar$e on the way out, we don’t need another claim!
The 3 network is down at the moment! Can’t make or receive calls or use Data/text messages. Welcome
O2 customers!
Ye I was just about to say that, no coverage here in north co Dublin,
Hugh: That’s an amazing title for a stock photo!
And not a modern phone to be seen either :)
“Happy People…”
We have no reason to believe these are happy people. They could be with Three trying to get signal
This is not good.
Yes it is. I’ve been with them for 5 years. My bills have dropped a lot since switching to them (and I’ve previously been with every network except e-Mobile). Three are a great company!
Most people who seem to complain about Three are those that call customer service often – the same people who (need to) call customer service lines for other companies and complain about them too. If there’s such a thing as a bad company, then there’s definitely such a thing as ‘bad’ customers!
On the plus side, “FREE 3-to-3 Calls” just got a whole lot better !!
Matt and others don’t be fooled by low prices into thinking a company loves you enough to not make money out of you. Pricing is all swings and roundabouts because that way they all win. Ever notice the really great deal is only ever with one network? Then when they close it someone else has a great deal. It’s all designed to get you on that old 12 month contract which is where the money is. Even on ready to go the deals go around and around. The only thing left to measure them by is how they treat you as a customer and my experience of calling Mumbai to speak to people who were either hard of hearing or had very little understanding of English was a joke. Phone was 1 week old and faulty, 8 months later I closed my account and told three to piss off. In comparison my iPhone on Vodafone became faulty after 6 months and was replaced in a week, very few questions asked.
Phil
I agree with you on the 12, 18 & 24 month contracts, a total waste of money. I personally use a 30 day all you can eat plan. Yes I may pay a bit more, but I can move networks any time I want.
Ah here phil. It was Apple who sorted your iphone and not Vodafone. Problem with an iphone then you get told no matter what provider you are with that it is Apple who take care of it. And they do, very efficiently as well.
I was gonna say that!
I now know apple are the ones that swap without question. I suppose my point was that three argued with me constantly instead of sorting it whereas Vodafone immediately used the apple warranty to sort me out.
Meteor all d way …:)
No Emobile are cheaper again:-)
Aren’t ye all very racist at 8 o clock in the morning! :P
What ever ye say about their CS, 3 are the only network provider not ripping off customers
At what point did anyone make a racist remark? People were just pointing out the fact that the customer service is rubbish, I’ve experienced it first hand and won’t ever go thru that again, because the call centre is in India just confounds the problem with cultural/language differences, stop playing the race card!
It was a joke. If you couldn’t see that or the smiley, there’s no hope
It’s not great news for consumers as it’s just reduced the choice of infrastructure owning networks from 4 down to 3. You can expect prices to rise now as 3 were hungry for customers and very price competitive. A lot of the MVNOs are on O2 too : Tesco Mobile and ’48′.
I’m surprised this isn’t subject to competition authority approval.
What will the new network be called? 02+3 = 5?
Paragraph 4 David
“The sale is subject to competition approvals at an EU level “
I am the same. With Meteor and Emobile owned by Eircom and now 3 taking over o2 there isn’t going to be much competition out there anymore. Mybe Dennis O Brien might come back into the Irish market since he is doing a excellent job out in South America. He has even rolled out 4g there already.
There will be plenty more competition with more mnvos entering the market. Companies like o2 and upc declaring interest. Lebara and Lyca increasing the marketing budgets
An ex 3 customer and would never go back. I can not fault the actual call centre staff who were always polite and patient however the script they must be given does not match all the situations that arise and then when you are passed to a supervisor they have the same script! It drove me insane and willing to pay Vodafone more. A bit of a cut off my nose to spite my face but my stress levels are down now. I also have to take some responsibility for language barrier having a very fast scots accent.
hopefully all the masts will be kept and integrated!!
3 are fine unless you ask them to do consolidated billing or you have to use phone customer care.
Neither of which is a biggie.
I can live without consolidated billing and I rarely have problems with my phone.
I too am with 3 and because of the dire customer service and rising costs I was planning to move back to O2 at the end of my contract! Not sure what to do now!
Tesco Mobile don’t rip of customers cheapest around.
Coverage on the O2 network you can trust……
You can’t use Tesco Internet for free abroad. You can on Three networks abroad.
Three are horrible to deal with by phone,you have to repeat yourself fifty times, speak slowly.. End up getting nowhere.. I left to go to tesco mobile.. They are excellent to deal with..
Their customer care is handled by….o2
Who have just been sold to 3
What does this mean for the O2 customer care based in Limerick. Will they get to keep there jobs and the stores that are doubleing up in towns and city’s across Ireland.
***shake hands***
Feckin spell check!!!
I like the fact that UK numbers can be called and the same units used. No extra charge. Very hand for doing business’s. And if you go abroad and go to their network, them you don’t pau roaming charges. Have vf sorted that yet? That have networks in lots of countries?
I have their mobile internet MiFi. And the same rules apply when using it abroad. If your have monthly allowance left on your data, you can use it at no extra cost where ever there is a Three like network. I’ve used it in the UK and Italy and not been charged a penny.
Only thing good about 02 were their shorter contracts and better internet speed. Vodafone is doing just two years with their red plans? Meteor does 18. I’ll admit o2 has horrendous customer service. Went to the letterKenny shop and was told 3 different prices for the same phone and plan. As I was finally going to buy the phone they tried adding an extra 50 euro to the price. Needless to say I left before they could use my card to buy themselves a new car
You can do 18 months on the red plan, you just pay a little but more for the phone which is fair I think
Does this mean that Half-life 3 is confirmed?
So what happens with my contract I signed in sept? Been with them since they became O2 over here, if my contract is now with a new company surely I can just leave?
Was with 3 for about 6 months a few years back. Never. Again. They actually called me to let me know my bill was due. Like some sort of east end debt collector…in Mumbai, who took a long time to actually get to the point of the phone call.
Why would be able to leave? As long as Three serve your current contract and don’t try to raise your prices the contract will remain in place. If they try to change your pricing while your contract is in place you’ll be able to cancel your contract as far as I know.
maybe now 3′s rubbish coverage will come up to standard!
Coverage is good now. same as O2
EU can’t possibly approve this…
40% is around the same controlled by EE after Orange and T-Mobile merged. This will go through.
3′s current market share is simply too small for regulators to be concerned about adding it to O2′s.
I’m with 3 for the last 4 years. Easily the best operator around.
Bad news for customers as it reduces competition and we are now lumped in with a network with dire customer care and confusing packages. Iv been an o2 customer since they came into the market and found them generally very good and helpful. Packages not as competitive but a more reliable network.
The 3 Arena?
03 arena
Will be interesting to see what is done with masts for each company- imagine some will be redundant where in close proximity to existing, but others might be retained to create what should be a very extensive coverage area? Vodafone 2g arrangement should end.
Also, as a three customer, have no issues with the provider. Never had with O2 or Vodafone before that either tho. What is everyone calling customer services for that makes it such a factor in selection?! Think ive called once or twice in ten years or so!
A tie up with eircom would have been MUCH better. Not just because Meteor+3 is smaller, but also because Hutchison has very deep pockets, something eircom’s landline infrastructure sorely needs
3 tried to buy Eircom out a few months ago. That would of been more of a disaster for the mobile market because they would of had most of the market with Meteor and Emobile owned by Eircom.
3+e-mobile+Meteor is definitely not “most of the market”. That is still smaller than 3+O2
3 has to be the worst speed broad band shocking
I had O2 billpay and i was happy. 2GB data a month. after 18 month they offered me same plan for the same price butt 750 Mb data. JOKE ! i said. i had no choice but to move to 3. ALL YOU CAN EAT DATA is the Future.
I always say you have to respect loyalty of costumers. After i moved to 3, 8 more people around me did the same.
R.I.P. O2
And the Coverage of 3 is surprisingly good !
Wow lyca mobile must really be kicking ass in the Irish market for this to happen :|
I don’t understand who can be with 3, they are so expensive with horrible customer service in India that before dealing with a problem wants to find you on map and you have to explain where the co. Tipperary on map is.
O2 isn’t as bad as 3 but would never sign contract with them too.
I expect Vodafone and Meteor (eMobile) to go up with prices after O2 is gone.
Three are by far the worst company I have ever dealt with.
I was on the Three network for 4 excruciating months. The cut me off for no reason after the first week, failed to reconnect me despite promising to about a dozen times and just kept billing me. When I cancelled my contract they threatened me with legal action, and then followed up with pleading “please come back” phone calls on a daily basis to the point of harassment.
Their customer service was so bad, I became convinced that non-only do they not have a customer service database, I don’t think they actually own a computer between them. I don’t believe they even write anything down.
Total cowboys.
What will happen with 48? Aren’t they owned by O2?
I think 48 are a seperate company who just work off o2s network.. i guess they will just work off 3s network now
I can understand Telefónica’s wish to dispose of O2, but I can’t understand why they’d dispose of only Ireland.
Telefónica’s purchase of O2 didn’t make a lot of sense, since they continue to run it separately — there was no visible connection between Movistar and O2 even though they were, in effect, the same company.
But I don’t understand how disposing of O2 Ireland, while retaining O2 UK makes sense. I would definitely have thought, whatever about Germany, those two would go hand-in-hand.
Thank you for calling 3 customer service how may I help you today sir….well I keep getting dropped calls….very Good sir can I just verify your identification for security purposes please …..yes I’m blah fing blah now about my calls they keep dropping since I switched to 3 what can I do….ok sir very good , now when you say dropping calls are you meaning that the calls are not completing ….yes….you know dropped calls…getting cut off….disconnecting….oh I see very good sir…I can put you on hold for a moment . ……CALL DROPS……call back…thank you for calling 3 customer service how may I help you….yes I was just talking….sorry sir can I just verify your identification or security purposes…..and on and on and on it fing goes…..to all you O2 customers who will be shifting to the unique 3 customer service experience in Mumbai….your in for a real treat….
Will the current contracts with O2 still carry over to the new network or will customers have to start a new one with 3??
3 Ireland’s network is down today, can you just imagine calling India for help with that! Even the thoughts of it makes me shiver! I had a modem with them years ago, the technical support Indian drones were utterly useless. I pay O2 for a better quality of service.
Less choice for the consumer, three will hike up prices for new customers to pay for this also. The other networks will also seize the chance to up prices. Not a good day for the consumer.
I have just signed a new 2 year contract with O2 ,pity I didn’t know this first or I would of switched to Vodafone
Tesco use the O2 network, what happens there I wonder?
Yeh. Poor Tesco.
Well ’twas more the customer I’d be thinking of.
So will this mean all current O2 customers will be offered deals on Three’s network after the deal is finalised?
I’m also guessing this spells the end of O2′s sponsorship with the IRFU and the Point Depot.
Worst mobile phone company I’ve ever dealt with by SO far. Would go without a phone rather than be with them.
I dont want O2 to be Gone , IF they keep the brand name WHat about calling it O3
I like the title for the image there
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