Network Consolidation

Sorry for the delay in updating this. You blink and two months have passed by without you noticing. I must try harder. I will try harder. It’s not like there is nothing to talk about. This busy industry of ours continues to keep us on our toes.

So what does this Orange and T-Mobile merger mean then? Now it has been given the green light by Europe we should start to see some real action over the next few weeks and months. As we are starting to see analysed and reported there has to be some cost reduction to make the whole plan work and unfortunately this will inevitably include good mobile people losing their jobs. Which is really sad, and good luck to anyone affected, but this whole transaction has come about due to necessary consolidation. There was just not enough money coming in from UK mobile subscribers to feed five networks and all their associated infrastructures.

How will our life in the dealer channel change? Ever the optimist I ‘think’ it is going to be a good thing for independent dealers and therefore HSC, as long as we get a bit of luck and a following wind. I fully appreciate that we need competition in the market to keep everyone honest and make sure that the customer gets the best product at a fair price. That makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the sheer volume of tariffs arrayed in front of anyone trying to pick the right one for them. Hopefully this merge will lead to less unnecessary tariffs. If they consolidate the two brands we will only have to work through four sets and not five so we’re 20% better off on the confusion factor straightaway. Unless of course the networks respond by increasing their tariff ranges! Fortunately the opposite seems to be happening and nearly all operators are now introducing cleaner tariff options.

In a four-network market (I’m not going to dig up the “Who is going to buy Three?” debate again) the new battleground seems to be on providing a cost-efficient, high-capacity network and selling in a broader range of communications services for use on ever more capable devices. Independent dealers have to be better off in that world IF they are given a fair crack of the whip. What we need to see happening is all products and services being offered through all sales channels. IF that happens I think the average local independent dealer and their proactive nature, consultative sales style, superior product knowledge and great local service has a big role to play. Still too many IF's though...