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back to article Vodafone, TPG propose 'merger of equals'

One of Australia's most acquisition-hungry telcos, TPG, is to merge with mobile carrier Vodafone Australia. It's spun as a “merger of equals”, which is nearly true: TPG will own 49.9 per cent of the new TPG Telecom Limited, while Vodafone Group and Hutchison (the international businesses who own Vodafone Hutchison Australia, …

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  1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    TPG's history as an ISP stretches back to the 90s. They were a budget dial-up provider then.

    4 0 Reply
    1. Youngone Silver badge
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      It is noted that this merger makes sense for the businesses, but is there enough competition in the Australian market for this to make sense to consumers?

      Will the regulator say no?

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      1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
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        I don't think so. I don't believe TPG and Vodafone currently compete with each other to a significant degree. TPG's mobile services for instance are provided as an MVNO, using Vodafone's network.

        2 0 Reply
      2. Adam 1
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        At the retail side, I personally think it's not too bad. They don't really swim in each others' pool, so merging isn't likely to reduce either mobile or ISP competition. TPGs more recent acquisitions of iinet etc would be more worrying than this.

        The bigger questions for the ACCC or whatever other toothless tiger would be things like whether they should be permitted to hold whatever 5G frequencies as one company.

        /IANAL etc etc

        1 0 Reply
  2. john.jones.name

    going to be interesting

    TPG has always been marketed on price and buy cheap (laggy) bandwidth for their networks.

    Vodafone invested a HUGE amount of capital in their network and optimisation and brand.

    would you buy a business bundle from TPG ?

    2 0 Reply
    1. mikesheen
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      Re: going to be interesting

      TPG owns a lot of it's own fibre backhaul, that's why they are cheap. They do skimp on the NBN CVC for their NBN plans, however.

      Their business fibre products are exceptional - been using one for 5 years or so.

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        TPG not great at all...

        TPG has actually not got a lot of backhaul they focused on flats near the CBD's and most of their fibre is tied up in one transatlantic link they bought as part of pipe networks.

        They focus on price and their products reflect that. None of their products seem good technically, they are cheap e.g. their peering arrangements are all slow links with no burst capacity for the number of users behind them.

        They still do not know how to configure a IPv6 network or provide a robust DNS service despite owning pipe and iinet which have provided that service for a long time.

        1 1 Reply
  3. onefang

    Before I moved house last month I was with Internode for Internet. Internode don't supply service to my new address, though I still have my mobile phone with them. While I was with Internode, they got bought by IInet, though left to operate as it's own brand. Then IInet got bought by TPG, leaving both IInet and Internode operating as their own brands. So will this basically end up as Vodaphone owning TPG that owns IInet that owns Internode, and it's turtles all the way down? I guess it's better than being Dodo's all the way down.

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