'Big switch-on' takes place with more than 27 million people now able to use their phones in more places than ever before
Orange and T-Mobile customers given access to both networks enabling them to make calls and send texts in more places at no extra cost
- Half of the UK population get access to first customer benefit of Everything Everywhere
- Orange and T-Mobile launch £4 million joint advertising campaign marking industry first
London, 11 October 2010: British mobile customers can now make calls and send texts in more places than ever before, thanks to the single biggest transformation in mobile networks since the birth of the mobile industry.
Everything Everywhere, the UK's biggest communications company, today announced that mobile customers of its two mobile brands, Orange and T-Mobile, can now access its two mobile networks as the first customer benefit of the merged company. The big switch on of access to both networks signals the beginning of the single biggest transformation of mobile coverage since the birth of mobile.
Orange customers are now able to make calls and send texts on the T-Mobile network and T-Mobile customers are able to do the same using the Orange network. It means that 27 million UK customers – the combined customer base of both brands – can use their mobiles in more places than ever before.
Customers who want to sign up for access to both networks will benefit free of charge, with no changes to their existing tariff or call or text charges when using the other signal. Customers simply register at www.orange.co.uk/share or www.t-mobile.co.uk/share to receive an update to their SIM card. From that point on, if a customer loses signal on their existing network, they will automatically pick up the signal from the other network where it’s available.
To let customers know they can benefit from the UK's biggest ever network coverage improvement, a £4 million joint Orange and T-Mobile advertising campaign will launch on 11th October. In an industry first, the company's two famous brands will appear 'head to head' and speaking to one another in the marketing campaign.
Tom Alexander, CEO of Everything Everywhere – the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile – said: "Today’s switch-on is the culmination of a unique and hugely complex technical project. But the result is simple – our customers now get two networks for the price of one.
"That means 27 million consumers can now keep close to the people, places and things that matter to them in more places than ever before. This is the first step in our vision of giving our customers instant access to whatever they want, wherever they are – instant access to everything, everywhere."
Everything Everywhere's ambition is to provide all Orange and T-Mobile customers with the best network experience in the UK, by offering a multi-network strategy to combine 2G, 3G, 4G, fixed broadband and WiFi in unique customer offer. Significant network investment is taking place to ensure the network is enhanced for the 21st century customer.
Next year customers can expect benefits such as automatically switching to whichever of the two networks has the strongest signal while they’re mid-call, and enhanced data and internet coverage.
Customers from either network who want to sign up to benefit from the initial network improvements can go to either www.t-mobile.co.uk/share or www.orange.co.uk/share or their business account manager. Mobile customers including pay as you go, pay monthly and business can sign up to enjoy the benefits of access to both mobile networks.
About EE
EE is the most advanced digital communications company in Britain, providing mobile and fixed line services to 27 million customers, and will soon become the first company in the UK to provide 4G mobile services alongside fixed-line fibre.
EE is the company that runs the Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK, and will be launching its new superfast 4G brand – EE – in the coming weeks.
Its 4G service will cover a third of the population by the end of 2012 and its fibre service will cover 50% of the population by the end of the year.
EE’s mobile service currently provides coverage to 99% of the population with 2G and 98% of the population with 3G
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