Everything Everywhere, the Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom partnership that runs T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, says it'll give its customers access to both networks at no extra cost from next month.

From 5th October, the combined customer base of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, which is around 30 million customers, will be able to sign-up for access to both networks. This won't happen automatically but will be free of charge with no change to customers' existing tariffs. Calls will still drop if there's no signal on the customer's existing network but they'll then be able to automatically pick up the signal from the other network where it’s available.

Tom Alexander, CEO of Everything Everywhere, said "This is the beginning of an ambitious plan to give our customers instant access to whatever they want, wherever they are – instant access to everything everywhere. From next month, we will give almost half of the British population the opportunity to use their phones in more places than ever before. As well as continuing to benefit from their existing network, Orange customers will be able to make calls and send texts on the T-Mobile network and T-Mobile customers will be able to do the same using the Orange network. This is the first major consumer benefit of the merger between Orange and T-Mobile, and it delivers an unrivalled and unique experience that no other operator can offer. We have a vision of a ‘multinet’ world where the consumer will be able to access what they want, when they want, at the touch of a button. It will all be possible due to a complex system of interweaving multiple networks, bringing mobile, wifi and fixed technologies together to act as a super network."

Next year Everything Everywhere plans to introduce automatic switching mid-call to whichever of the two networks has the strongest signal.

Customers can pre-register at www.t-mobile.co.uk/share or www.orange.co.uk/share.