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How were you informed that in BT cellnet would becoming O2 in 2002 how did it affect you have you been with the O2 ever since

Kane McCarthy

Casual Member
How did it make you feel at the time obviously I've not known any different I've been on the O2 network for 11 years and when I was four but in 2006 I saw the O2 advert when I was little boy I knew I always wanted to be on O2 from a four-year-old even though my I was quite young then in 2013 my wish come true after I moved from Vodafone to O2 that was what would you thinking at the time when they came together
 
  • Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio Limited - Cellnet (1985–1999) - BT/Securicor
  • BT Cellnet Limited - BT Cellnet (1999–2002) - BT
  • mmO2 plc - O2 (2002–2005) - BT
  • O2 plc - O2 (2005-2008) - Telefonica
  • Telefónica O2 UK Limited - O2 (2008–2011) - Telefonica
  • Telefonica O2 UK Limited - O2 (2011) - Telefonica
  • Virgin Media O2 - VMO2 - (2021 to present) - Telefónica and Liberty Global
It all started with the short sighted decision by BT to sell mmO2. All the changes above have had a significant impact on consistent investment.

Stayed loyal until 2014 until I got a decent phone deal that just tipped the balance. I have had multiple O2 and O2 MVNO SIMS and still do via MVNO (TESCO and Sky) but no longer used as my main SIM since then.

Always been good for a backup but currently O2 is appalling (could not communicate at Oxford Circus yesterday afternoon despite 4 bars on 4G). EE and THREE worked despite the crowds but obviously not important enough location it seems for O2.

All the networks are in a status of change and the pricing is going mad. Just waiting for the dust to settle, if it ever does.
 
I didn't have much in the say of the network I had, I originally had O2 PAYG from May 2018, simply because by that point I was able to cross roads by myself (it should have been sooner before that, but I was never able to) as of May 5th 2018 when I suddenly got a huge confidence boost to do so.

Didn't have any proper usage of their data network until 2020. Simply because the phone I also had until that point was a brick phone similar to the 3310. But did have 3G internet connectivity. Served me quite well in of itself though, until said SIM would not work anymore in the port. I think some water damage happened at somepoint that I didn't forsee happening.

Tldr; ended up on O2 PAYG after I was able to cross roads by myself due to a huge sudden confidence boost.

(Then Sky and now O2 PAYM) - not enough problems as of yet to switch to a different network however I've been thinking of it for a little while because the "small" things are slowly adding up now especially the fact the contract is almost over as well.
 
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There's two ways of looking at it. BT Cellnet was definitely the brand that I remember who was growing the network in the first place which they deserve some credit for, and also had some good deals at the time that I know some family members kept long after the O2 rebrand with a bunch of free calls to your favourite numbers on evenings and weekends with no monthly fees.

O2 brought out a brand that seemed to fit in with the evolving times though, brought more development to the network, made costs fairer across the board, and felt more attractive to join.

I definitely didn't stick with them all the way through though. Every year or two I would bounce from one network to another, mostly back and forth between T-Mobile (now EE) and O2. Both have their pros and cons and neither is perfect. And for now in the present day, until O2 sort out their network congestion EE is the only network I could recommend anyone to join.
 
I remember everyone saying what a daft name, but those were the times (remember Ericsson Enterprise rebranding as “Damovo”?)

You have to remember that BT was on the verge of going bust. £30bn in debt. It was a case of sell something off or go under. There was also a view within BT that the dreary business of running high cost low margin networks was a mug’s game, that the future was in systems/services integration, and that BT would just buy-in cellular services, eg their almost immediate replacement partnership with Vodafone.

It’s been said that business schools will be teaching it for years as a great strategic blunder, but in hindsight BT played a blinder. They got £18bn for O2, saved the business, and got back into cellular eventually (and with a far better network) by buying EE for £12bn. BT was and is a basket case, but things could have turned out a lot worse for them.
 
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I loved my BT Cellnet Philips Savvy phone
 
I loved my BT Cellnet Philips Savvy phone
Still have mine! Just with Orange branding instead.

IMG_3842.webp
 
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I remember everyone saying what a daft name, but those were the times (remember Ericsson Enterprise rebranding as “Damovo”?)

You have to remember that BT was on the verge of going bust. £30m in debt. It was a case of sell something off or go under. There was also a view within BT that the dreary business of running high cost low margin networks was a mug’s game, that the future was in systems/services integration, and that BT would just buy-in cellular services, eg their almost immediate replacement partnership with Vodafone.

It’s been said that business schools will be teaching it for years as a great strategic blunder, but in hindsight BT played a blinder. They got £18m for O2, saved the business, and got back into cellular eventually (and with a far better network) by buying EE for £12m. BT was and is a basket case, but things could have turned out a lot worse for them.
I think they paid a little bit more than £12m for EE.
 
Still have mine! Just with Orange branding instead.

View attachment 21022

That's the phone my parents brought me when I entered the Sixth Form, if memory serves me right I think my mum also had one and I think my best friend while I was in higher education had one too.

Very reliable phone, can't remember much as I only used it for the odd text or to call home to say I be home later than expected (usually a 2 or 3 minute call).

Don't remember much past BT Cellnet other than sometimes using O2 Germany when I flew out there for a few days.
 
So my first ever mobile network was with Orange when I was eight years old then I went over to T-Mobile just before I went back over to Orange I was with Orange from about 2010 even though I was going to go over to O2 I made the decision I wasn't gonna be on O2 like the rest of my family so I'd moved back over to Orange my family will shocked at the knowledge I knew at the time and I decided to leave for Orange to go over to Vodafone I was with them for two years from 2011 to the summer of 2013 I was moving house the time I got quite fed up being on Vodafone it gave me a good excuse because I couldn't get it in the area and that was an even better because I knew I wanted to leave Vodafone to move to a different network I was still on Vodafone when we moved a few weeks later in 2013 and then that's when I saw an advert for the O2 network so I grabbed myself SIM I knew what I was doing because I did it online I even used to ring customer service when I was quite young if I had any issues in my first phone on the network was about Blackberry Curve 8520 on this picture on New Year's Day 2013 here's the picture of my Blackberry bold 9700
 

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My 3310 was on BT Cellnet in 2000. I had moved over from Orange and went straight back to Orange when I got my Sony Ericsson T68i.

The coverage on Orange was far better locally.

The introduction of the animal plans and Orange Wednesdays kept me on Orange for years, plus the good coverage.

I remember the name O2 raised a few eyebrows at the time.

The O2 genie sims with 300 free texts were very popular at school. I think pretty much everyone had one at some point.

I think BT Cellnet replaced Vodafone as the biggest network in the UK in 2000.

A part from a couple of years where the newly formed EE went top, they have remained there ever since.
 
BT made some awful, truly awful, decisions in the 90s - they thought that they could become major international telcos in Europe and North America and wasted billions there. Their joint ventures in Europe all collapsed as did their deal with MCI in USA.

As a consequence their UK plans to build the 'Information Superhighway' and fibre the UK were scrapped and they were forced to sell the only asset they had that others wanted - their mobile business - and was, as the vultures say “in play.”

For years BT was an incumbent telco that didn't have a mobile network - the growth business. Utter madness. Since then they won the lottery with EE and have finally got round to what they should have been doing 20 years ago with IP and media in their home territory.

It's a real shame, without that massive strategic error, BT could have been a world leading telecoms provider and we could have had fibre and all-IP 20 years ago.
 
Aye, I remember when “Concert” was the Great White Hope of BT. I still have my internal Concert international calling card somewhere.

I agree it will always be seen as a strategic error to sell off their cellular network, but it was a tactical necessity—there would be no BT at all today had they not done so.
 
Back in BT Cellnet days the network was a patchwork quilt of service providers and thus the user experience was in some ways dependant on who your service provider was. At the time there were different technical limitations meaning not all services were available across the full estate.

I have vivid memories of The Links "Phone in a Box" which was a £99 deal where you got a phone (in a box - who'd have thought) and lifetime line rental with a couple of free calls. Some of the oldest tariffs I remember were called "Call 50", later improved to "Net 100" and "Group 15". Another service offered were "Line Advances", where you paid for your line rental up front (usually a year at a time).

BTCellent had a "Select" programme, where customers who spent above a certain threshold, or in someway "special" were given a different level of customer service.

I remember lots of new tariffs popping up in the early 2000's, and with the advent of GPRS and MMS lots of changes were needed to billing systems to bring them up to speed. 2004 was the year when mmo2 launched their make or break billing system and it didn't go well with some customers not being charged for months.

The promotional material for mmo2 / O2 was very good at the time. Whoever they used for marketing did a great job, and there was a great buzz at the time for this change.
 
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