[3GScottishUser]

From The Guardian (15/08/2006):

Tiscali, the internet service provider which, over the weekend, bought British broadband TV company Homechoice, is understood to have held talks with four of the five UK mobile phone networks - 3, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone - to add a mobile phone product to its portfolio.
The move would turn Tiscali into a provider of "quad-play" services to rival the merged NTL/Virgin Mobile, although probably not until next year.

A deal is most likely with 3, as the other networks have their own plans for broadband. Vodafone is locked in talks with BT and Cable & Wireless over a wholesale broadband deal.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1844612,00.html

[Ben]

Mhm and here was me thinking Vodafone would take Tiscali. If they were still in acquisition mode I'm sure they would...

[3GScottishUser]

Something along those lines might still happen as there appears to be a lot of market repositioning going on right now.

I think it would be unwise to rule out anything due to the speed of consolodation recently. Expect a few more names to dissapear before the year end.

[Hands0n]

This is dot.com localised to the UK methinks :) There will be big winners, and staggering losers!

[Ben]

At least most of the operators/service providers are running into the arms of each other scared that if they don't they'll be left behind rather than expecting, or at least I hope, massive returns. If they look at this through the eyes of survival and efficiency then they'll be ok.

Bloomin' 3G licence costs - I swear things would be very different had the outlay been minimal.

[Hands0n]

Government greed caused the licence costs to be what they were - then they went on to pilliage the Pensions pot, but that is another story for another forum :D.

The time to gain a return on investment in 3G is going to be one of those redefining moments in accountancy.

[Ben]

It wasn't just government greed, mind - it's the damn operators that kept bidding for a fancy piece of paper that says "Ok, you can have a 3G network". Hell, I'd have written 'em one for a tenner ;)