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Swisscom buys Vodafone Italia

Lucian

ULTIMATE Member
So VodaCON got the cash (around £6 Billion) , thus no need to merge with Three (to give better service for customers' fake cliche). Use those funds for investing and upgrading in your UK (home) networks and CS.
 
This was just approved by the Italian authorities.

So Swisscom's Fastweb and Vodafone Italia will be combined. Wonder what the name of the "new" company will be. Perhaps it will stay Fastweb.

 
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So VodaCON got the cash (around £6 Billion) , thus no need to merge with Three (to give better service for customers' fake cliche). Use those funds for investing and upgrading in your UK (home) networks and CS.
Watch out how it'll all go on dividends and such. :)
 
Watch out how it'll all go on dividends and such. :)

That's the strange thing, they do this for investment but I feel as though investment is their code word for "dividend payout to shareholders"

Much like there's a lot of code words elsewhere for other things too
 
Looking at Vodafone, it's clear they're way past their heyday, they are shrinking, merging or exiting markets, it's a sign of a business that is not doing well at all. Even in their motherland they are struggling.

It's actually pretty sad, because they are among the pioneers of this industry and were ubiquitous 10-15 years ago.
 
That's the strange thing, they do this for investment but I feel as though investment is their code word for "dividend payout to shareholders"

Much like there's a lot of code words elsewhere for other things too
Thats the Bane of British Policy after Thatcher's so called revolution (read Family silver sell off to pals in square mile). Add Brexit woes and greed to that.

As an aside (hope mods dont mind my little rant) , was reading a report yesterday from BBC that the Water companies (most of them foreign owned) have siphoned off approx. £ 85 billion from the companies by way of dividends and other creative accounting tricks, over the years after privatisation. AND ended up poisoning our waterways, rivers, ponds and beaches ! A staggering & scandalous amount by any standards worldwide. And Ofwat doesnt seem have a clue how to deal. Come a hot spell and they will enfore hosepipe bans and price rises. No new reservoirs have been built in the last 30 years ! Nor any substantive investments in water treatments and filteration plants. Thames water on its knees.


Go figure ! Rant over.

And Three network doesnt know whether it is coming or going, judging by the latest shenanigans about merger, no merger, Sell off, quit UK, utilise spare sepctrum from Relish , or what?
 
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Thats the Bane of British Policy after Thatcher's so called revolution (read Family silver sell off to pals in square mile). Add Brexit woes and greed to that.

As an aside (hope mods dont mind my little rant) , was reading a report yesterday from BBC that the Water companies (most of them foreign owned) have siphoned off approx. £ 85 billion from the companies by way of dividends and other creative accounting tricks, over the years after privatisation. AND ended up poisoning our waterways, rivers, ponds and beaches ! A staggering & scandalous amount by any standards worldwide. And Ofwat doesnt seem have a clue how to deal. Come a hot spell and they will enfore hosepipe bans and price rises. No new reservoirs have been built in the last 30 years ! Nor any substantive investments in water treatments and filteration plants. Thames water on its knees.


Go figure ! Rant over.

And Three network doesnt know whether it is coming or going, judging by the latest shenanigans about merger, no merger, Sell off, quit UK, utilise spare sepctrum from Relish , or what?


I know all about the secretive tricks they do, and other industries too, it's shocking no justice is served upon them for what they do but I guess that's the British state for you there
 
Looking at Vodafone, it's clear they're way past their heyday, they are shrinking, merging or exiting markets, it's a sign of a business that is not doing well at all. Even in their motherland they are struggling.

It's actually pretty sad, because they are among the pioneers of this industry and were ubiquitous 10-15 years ago.
Pioneers?

SMS was developed for Emergency Broadcast

A service that cost nothing was being charged for at around 60p per text back in the 1990s, the first GSM network that sent and delivered an SMS was Vodafone UK.

They've been milking the cow for years.
 
This was just approved by the Italian authorities.

So Swisscom's Fastweb and Vodafone Italia will be combined. Wonder what the name of the "new" company will be. Perhaps it will stay Fastweb.

The mentioned approval was issued by the Italian government, and it's very similar to the one released by HMG related to the merger between VF UK and 3UK in the past days.
The most important and final approval from the relevant Italian authorities, i.e. the equivalent of Ofcom and CMA, is expected only in early 2025.
 
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@sufferingsam do not get me started on the Conservative Party and what they have been allowed to get away with since the 1980s.
Their privatisation of everything has delayed technological advancement by roughly 25 years or more.
Indeed. If you remember arrogant statments from the then CEO of BT, Peter (Bonehead) Bonfield that he will never allow unlimited calls on their network, and stuck to dial up for years, milking the Public for every penny. USA , and other countries have unlimited local calls (now even national) from day one, and similarly would have cost nothing for BT to implement and win goodwill.

Even now, thier reluctance to investing in Fibre without blackmailing the Govt. for funding is equally scandalous. And being selective at that too, especially the not spots or where there's compeition.

And then there's the trains network in shambles, Post office ruined, despite over the top price rises, Gas/Electric rip offs, NHS, Dentists (mostly privatised) and the list goes on.
 
Indeed. If you remember arrogant statments from the then CEO of BT, Peter (Bonehead) Bonfield that he will never allow unlimited calls on their network, and stuck to dial up for years, milking the Public for every penny. USA , and other countries have unlimited local calls (now even national) from day one, and similarly would have cost nothing for BT to implement and win goodwill.

Even now, thier reluctance to investing in Fibre without blackmailing the Govt. for funding is equally scandalous. And being selective at that too, especially the not spots or where there's compeition.

And then there's the trains network in shambles, Post office ruined, despite over the top price rises, Gas/Electric rip offs, NHS, Dentists (mostly privatised) and the list goes on.
From what I heard, BT/OR were more than happy to roll out FTTP nationwide many many years ago, but Margaret thatcher had a problem with that?
 
I'm not sure how it's debatable that privatising critical infrastructure was a stupid idea

It's not the investors fault they invested in an obvious money maker, but that's not all that was obvious. When you take a public service private, it's goal shifts from providing a good service to making money for investors...

That's exactly what happened. I'm not sure why we even point out the investors were overseas, if I ever had the chance I would invest in these companies, the result would be the same since the "customers" don't have any other choice but to use these companies in most instances. If it's a public-service-gone-private it's not going to ensure you have a good service, it's job is now to make investors money
 
I'm not sure how it's debatable that privatising critical infrastructure was a stupid idea

It's not the investors fault they invested in an obvious money maker, but that's not all that was obvious. When you take a public service private, it's goal shifts from providing a good service to making money for investors...

That's exactly what happened. I'm not sure why we even point out the investors were overseas, if I ever had the chance I would invest in these companies, the result would be the same since the "customers" don't have any other choice but to use these companies in most instances. If it's a public-service-gone-private it's not going to ensure you have a good service, it's job is now to make investors money
True, but for essential utilities and infra builds, (national Interests should triumph with adequate regulation and USO), which is sadly lacking with our toothless tigers, leading to stagnation and paralysis.

Roaming on Lebara in EU (Spain, Portugal etc ) gives so much satisfaction using 5G whereas here in UK, we struggle for decent 4G signals too ! And so much better Public WiFi too !
 
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Unlikely that. FTTP was not even a thing in Mid 80s. It was ISDN mainly.
I've heard about what @jon1 mentioned, I think they were ready to roll out 2 or 20mbps fibre (both amounts may be wrong) nationwide which would have skipped us ever having ADSL.
 
Unlikely that. FTTP was not even a thing in Mid 80s. It was ISDN mainly.

At that time, the UK, Japan and the United States were leading the way in fibre optic technology and roll-out. Indeed, the first wide area fibre optic network was set up in Hastings, UK. But, in 1990, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided that BT’s rapid and extensive rollout of fibre optic broadband was anti-competitive and held a monopoly on a technology and service that no other telecom company could do.

“Unfortunately, the Thatcher government decided that it wanted the American cable companies providing the same service to increase competition. So the decision was made to close down the local loop roll out and in 1991 that roll out was stopped. The two factories that BT had built to build fibre related components were sold to Fujitsu and HP, the assets were stripped and the expertise was shipped out to South East Asia.
 
Well yes...
I am Italian and I have known and used Vodafone since 1999 when it was called omnitel.
It was probably the best performing network in Italy with equally probably the best customer service.
but the arrival of low-cost telephone companies reduced its earnings, thus forcing it to sell.
The unification with fastweb, another swisscom company, is scheduled for May/June 2025.
I currently have a Vodafone sim which performs very well as you can see from the speedtest and I hope it continues like this
 
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