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T-Mobile have brought us some notable occasions over the past 12 months or so – firstly, a very good mobile broadband offering, second an extremely memorable ‘FlashMob’ advertising campaign, and thirdly the Google G1. But none of these instances have managed to help the company that is now 4th out of 5 in terms of Operator market share in the UK.
It’s rumoured that in fact T-Mobile might exit the UK the altogether, or alternatively merge with the 5th largest Operator, Hutchison Whampoa’s 3UK. Those options aside, T-Mobile might choose to tough it out and see if they can increase market share – but the UK is one of the most competitive markets globally – with a penetration rate that means Operators can only grow by taking other Operators’ shares (and reducing churn obviously).
The two big boys in the UK, O2 and Vodafone, have millions more subscribers than T-Mobile (and 3UK), and this presents T-Mobile a range of difficult options, as outlined above – question is, what should they do?
An exit of the market could certainly be the most traumatic for T-Mobile and it’s subscribers, and a merger could end up being the most expensive option (I don’t even want to think about the logistics involved!). But do our readers have a different view on what should occur?
Personally I think the current economic situation, combined with the rock-and-a-hard-place position of T-Mobile means that the time could be ripe for an exit, particularly if financial results continue to be less than stellar – parent company Deutsche Telekom will surely put some decisive action in place in the coming months…
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
