Mark Bridge writes:
So – we take a short break at the end of the August ‘silly season’ and one of the year’s biggest mobile-related rumours becomes fact. At least we’re back in time to report on the final stages of the Vodafone/Verizon deal. Yes, it looks as though Big Red will be picking up something like $130 billion for its 45% stake in Verizon Communications… possibly within the next few hours. Just don’t mention the tax, okay?
The other big story from across the pond was Steve Ballmer’s resignation from Microsoft. Okay, so he’s not actually leaving for a few months, but that’s still a bit of a surprise from a man who’s recently started a major reorganisation.
What else has happened? Well, Vodafone and O2 both launched their 4G networks in the UK, EE announced that it now covered 100 towns and cities with its own 4G service and Three reminded everyone it would be joining the party by the end of the year. In addition, Three came up with a deal that’ll (almost) eliminate roaming charges for customers visiting a handful of countries abroad. No coincidence each of those destinations has a strong Three network presence.
As well as all this, we learned that 9% of five-year-old children had a mobile phone and ‘phablet’ was now in the dictionary. I can’t imagine Iain will let that last fact go unnoticed in this week’s podcast.
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