Mobile News is all over a couple of stories relating to a reduction in the number of both high street stores, and base stations, resulting from the merger of Orange and T-Mobile.
If they have their numbers right (and I’d expect they do), then 120 T-Mob/Orange stores will be closing, meaning a saving of £85mn in terms of operational and distribution costs. The remaining combined real estate will amount to 613 stores. However this is small fry combined to the total combined savings for the networks – ready for this – clocking in at a massive £3.5bn! Holy monkeys!
Another part of the cost-cutting is the reduction in base stations – and you can imagine there are some major savings to be made here too, since each network would be covering many of the same areas – or in other words, duplication. Here things will take slightly longer to implement (cell planning is a delicate art in my experience), saving £145mn from 2014. Interestingly, it’s the mainly 2G base stations that are getting the chop, whilst 3G base stations will be built out. Not a surprise, but interesting, since I’d have imagined the 2G network is typically wider spread for most operators – so surely reducing coverage? Hmm, I’m sure they’ll plan it out 🙂
So overall that’s some serious money saving – that figure again – £3.5bn!
[Via: Mobile News & Mobile News]