T-Mobile (UK)
Encyclopedia
T-Mobile UK is a mobile network and mobile broadband operator in the United Kingdom. It is owned and operated by Everything Everywhere
, the UK's largest mobile network.
T-Mobile UK started life as Mercury One2One, a GSM mobile network operated by the now-defunct Mercury Communications
. Later known simply as One2One, it was the world's first GSM 1800 network when it was launched in September 1993. In its final days it was operated as a joint venture between Cable and Wireless and American cable provider Mediaone Group
, which had a number of investments in Britain dating back to its days as the US West Media Group
. One 2 One was purchased by Deutsche Telekom in 1999 and rebranded as T-Mobile in 2002.
T-Mobile offers both pay-as-you-go and pay-monthly contract phones. The pay-monthly contracts consists of set amounts of minutes and 'flexible boosters' which allow the customer to change them month to month depending on their needs. Prior to this T-Mobile had a contract option known as 'Flext' which gave the user an amount of money to use for calls, texts, MMS and mobile internet as necessary. This was withdrawn in early 2010. There is no warning when pay-monthly customers exceed their monthly inclusive limit, leading to unexpectedly large bills. T-Mobile launched their 3G UMTS services in the Autumn of 2003.
On 12 December 2007, it was confirmed that a merger of the high-speed 3G
and HSDPA networks operated by T-Mobile UK and 3 (UK)
was to take place starting January 2008. This will leave T-Mobile and 3 with the largest HSDPA mobile phone network in the country, with a theoretical maximum speed of 6.5 Mb/s, rising to 7.2 Mb/s over the course of the year, although HSDPA access is restricted to Web'n'Walk Plus customers and above.
's Orange
and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom
announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. The long-term future of either brand is unclear though both would be retained for the first eighteen months at least.
Consumer Focus
and the Communications Consumer Panel sent a joint letter to the then Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes
in December 2009 asking for the merger to be investigated by authorities in the United Kingdom
, rather than Brussels
. The British Office of Fair Trading
joined this call by asking the EU to allow it to investigate the proposed deal in February 2010, saying that it believed the merger could have a 'significant' effect on competition.
On 1 March 2010 the European Commission approved the merger, on the condition that the combined company sell 25% of the spectrum it owns on the 1800 MHz radio band and amend a network sharing agreement with smaller rival 3
.
On 1 April 2010 Deutsche Telekom and France Telekom finalised the deal and completed the merger of their UK based operations, causing Orange UK and T-Mobile UK to cease to exist, although the brands will be maintained for at least 18 months.
On 11 May 2010 it was announced that both the Orange and T-Mobile brands will remain on British high streets, although their new merged parent company will be called Everything Everywhere
.
T-Mobile's UK network is also used as the backbone network behind Virgin Mobile
(the world's first virtual mobile operator), for both 2G and 3G signals.
, covering as far as Norfolk
, Suffolk
, Cambridgeshire
& Essex
. This was caused by a cut on their fibre cables and had to be repaired by the engineers. This resulted in about 12 hours of network outage.
of millions of customers, in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.
On 17 November 2009, T-Mobile admitted that it faced a consumer backlash after it was revealed that due to its own lax data security controls an employee had been selling customer data to third party companies. The mobile operator admitted that one of their own employees is facing prosecution after selling personal details of thousands of British customers to rival companies in a major breach of UK data protection laws. UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said the data was sold for “substantial amounts of money” to brokers working for other mobile phone companies. The privacy watchdog said it planned to prosecute and would push for jail terms for anyone convicted. Rival companies bought the information and used it to make cold calls to the customers offering them a new contract with a new network.
"Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We've got a fair use policy but ours means that you'll always be able to browse the Internet, it's only when you go over the fair use amount that you won't be able to download, stream and watch video clips."
This will effectively limit customers ability to use services such as Video chat/conference, Online streaming radio/TV news etc. or accessing e-mail attachments and playing online games or even downloading updates. In general this must be considered a very archaic approach towards internet content availability, particularly given the growing popularity of online services and smartphone market penetration.
The initial reports were that this was for all users, but after threats of contract breaches it was announced that it would apply to new and upgrading customers only - existing contracts would be honoured.
Everything Everywhere
Everything Everywhere Limited is a mobile network operator and internet service provider company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mobile network operator in the UK, with around 28 million customers...
, the UK's largest mobile network.
Company history
Mercury Communications
Mercury Communications was a national telephone company in the United Kingdom. The company was formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless to challenge the monopoly of British Telecom which was privatised in 1984...
. Later known simply as One2One, it was the world's first GSM 1800 network when it was launched in September 1993. In its final days it was operated as a joint venture between Cable and Wireless and American cable provider Mediaone Group
MediaOne
MediaOne was a cable company created by US West in 1995 where the cable service started as a division of US West Media Group.US West founded MediaOne , through the combination of GCTV serving Atlanta, Georgia and Dekalb County, Georgia and Wometco Cable's assets in the suburbs of Georgia.In time...
, which had a number of investments in Britain dating back to its days as the US West Media Group
US West
U S WEST, Inc. was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies , created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement , a case related to the antitrust breakup of AT&T...
. One 2 One was purchased by Deutsche Telekom in 1999 and rebranded as T-Mobile in 2002.
T-Mobile offers both pay-as-you-go and pay-monthly contract phones. The pay-monthly contracts consists of set amounts of minutes and 'flexible boosters' which allow the customer to change them month to month depending on their needs. Prior to this T-Mobile had a contract option known as 'Flext' which gave the user an amount of money to use for calls, texts, MMS and mobile internet as necessary. This was withdrawn in early 2010. There is no warning when pay-monthly customers exceed their monthly inclusive limit, leading to unexpectedly large bills. T-Mobile launched their 3G UMTS services in the Autumn of 2003.
On 12 December 2007, it was confirmed that a merger of the high-speed 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
and HSDPA networks operated by T-Mobile UK and 3 (UK)
Hutchison 3G
3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom...
was to take place starting January 2008. This will leave T-Mobile and 3 with the largest HSDPA mobile phone network in the country, with a theoretical maximum speed of 6.5 Mb/s, rising to 7.2 Mb/s over the course of the year, although HSDPA access is restricted to Web'n'Walk Plus customers and above.
Merger with Orange UK
On September 8, 2009 France TelecomFrance Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
's Orange
Orange UK
Orange is a mobile network operator and internet service provider in the United Kingdom, which launched in 1994. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was purchased by France Télécom in 2000, which then adopted the Orange brand for all its other mobile communications activities...
and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....
announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. The long-term future of either brand is unclear though both would be retained for the first eighteen months at least.
Consumer Focus
Consumer Focus
Consumer Focus is a statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland, formed in 2008 by the merging Postwatch, Energywatch and the Welsh, Scottish and National Consumer Councils...
and the Communications Consumer Panel sent a joint letter to the then Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . She served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 3 August 1971 until 28 December 1977 when she became State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management from 28 December 1977 until 11...
in December 2009 asking for the merger to be investigated by authorities in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, rather than Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. The British Office of Fair Trading
Office of Fair Trading
The Office of Fair Trading is a not-for-profit and non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforces both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the UK's economic regulator...
joined this call by asking the EU to allow it to investigate the proposed deal in February 2010, saying that it believed the merger could have a 'significant' effect on competition.
On 1 March 2010 the European Commission approved the merger, on the condition that the combined company sell 25% of the spectrum it owns on the 1800 MHz radio band and amend a network sharing agreement with smaller rival 3
Hutchison 3G
3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom...
.
On 1 April 2010 Deutsche Telekom and France Telekom finalised the deal and completed the merger of their UK based operations, causing Orange UK and T-Mobile UK to cease to exist, although the brands will be maintained for at least 18 months.
On 11 May 2010 it was announced that both the Orange and T-Mobile brands will remain on British high streets, although their new merged parent company will be called Everything Everywhere
Everything Everywhere
Everything Everywhere Limited is a mobile network operator and internet service provider company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mobile network operator in the UK, with around 28 million customers...
.
T-Mobile's UK network is also used as the backbone network behind Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile is a brand used by many mobile phone service providers across the globe; its headquarters are based in the United Kingdom. Virgin Mobile has local operations in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, Greece, United Kingdom and the United States. It briefly also had operations...
(the world's first virtual mobile operator), for both 2G and 3G signals.
Network outage
On 17 November 2009, as reported by Mobiholics.com http://www.mobiholics.com/content/operator-news/296033/t-mobile-uk-virgin-network-disruption/, there was a major network outage in East of EnglandEast of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...
, covering as far as Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
& Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. This was caused by a cut on their fibre cables and had to be repaired by the engineers. This resulted in about 12 hours of network outage.
Personal data sold on in security breach
In November 2009, T-Mobile UK was the subject of an investigation by the British Information Commissioner's Office following the involvement of some T-Mobile employees in the illegal trade of personal dataPersonally identifiable information
Personally Identifiable Information , as used in information security, is information that can be used to uniquely identify, contact, or locate a single person or can be used with other sources to uniquely identify a single individual...
of millions of customers, in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.
On 17 November 2009, T-Mobile admitted that it faced a consumer backlash after it was revealed that due to its own lax data security controls an employee had been selling customer data to third party companies. The mobile operator admitted that one of their own employees is facing prosecution after selling personal details of thousands of British customers to rival companies in a major breach of UK data protection laws. UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said the data was sold for “substantial amounts of money” to brokers working for other mobile phone companies. The privacy watchdog said it planned to prosecute and would push for jail terms for anyone convicted. Rival companies bought the information and used it to make cold calls to the customers offering them a new contract with a new network.
Mobile broadband fair use policy change
Effective February 1, 2011 T-Mobile UK lowered their fair-use capacity limit on Internet usage from 3GB to 500MB per month and clarified that Internet access using their mobile broadband service in reality only allows browsing the Internet using static websites. T-Mobile says:"Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We've got a fair use policy but ours means that you'll always be able to browse the Internet, it's only when you go over the fair use amount that you won't be able to download, stream and watch video clips."
This will effectively limit customers ability to use services such as Video chat/conference, Online streaming radio/TV news etc. or accessing e-mail attachments and playing online games or even downloading updates. In general this must be considered a very archaic approach towards internet content availability, particularly given the growing popularity of online services and smartphone market penetration.
The initial reports were that this was for all users, but after threats of contract breaches it was announced that it would apply to new and upgrading customers only - existing contracts would be honoured.