This is well overdue. My experience of Telefonica/O2's management during the time they decided to get rid of customer service (and broadband) was that the management team wanted to do anything but run a telco. Now, they finally get their chance not to.
Posts by Chad H.
2434 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jan 2007
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UK's competition watchdog gives £31bn Virgin Media and O2 merger the seal of approval
O2 be a fly on the wall during BT and Vodafone's video calls: Telefónica's UK biz, Virgin Media officially merge
Oh gawd, I hope not. When I worked there senior O2 management struck me as being like ADHD children. Desperate not to be running a telco they’d hatch all sorts of crazy schemes they’d show hyperactive levels of interest in, only for the attention deficit to swiftly kick in and the once darling idea that shaped the future of the business forgotten after mere weeks.
The O2 Board is very much the Peter principle in action. They’re fortunate to be on top of a business that basically runs itself, because if they had to do it, it would simply fail.
FBI boss: We went to the Moon, so why can't we have crypto backdoors? – and more this week
PETA calls for fish friendly Swedish street signage
Schadenfreude for UK mobile networks over the tumult at Carphone
>>>> For a perfect market to work the consumer needs information, the ability to evaluate such deals, and Carphone provided just that.
From my experience working in the mobile industry (admittedly a good few years ago) is that while Carphone certainly provided "Information", it was rarely, if ever correct. The number of Blackberries they sold without the required extra paid for service was... shocking. Back then Blackberries were just an overpriced basic phone without that extra service - couldnt get any data service at all.
Beardy Branson: Wacky hyperloop tube maglev cheaper than railways
Are you able to read this headline? Then you're not Julian Assange. His broadband is unplugged
You want wires with that? Burger King backs, er, net neutrality
Re: Well, Thank The Heavens
>>>Exactly. The same simpletons who bought this BS pretends the internet was only invented a few years ago. What ever did we do before net neutrality?
Well, O2 Broadband did try to charge you more to access streaming. If you bought their 8Mbps package no netflix for you.
Magic Leap blows our mind with its incredible technology... that still doesn't f**king exist
Twitter's not dreaming of a white supremacist Xmas: Accounts nuked
Merger-hungry AT&T sued for price gouging by Texas ISP
BT plots to slash pension benefits for 32,000 staff
Itching to stuff iOS 11 on your iPhone? You may want to hold off for a bit
Snopes.com asks for bailout amid dispute over who runs the site and collects ad dollars
Capita flogs Asset Services division for £888m
Canada's privacy watchdog probes US border phone seizures
Apple's macOS is the safer choice – but not for the reason you think
Why Apple's adaptive Touch Bar will flop
The Touchscreen was more or less a flop before the iPhone (anyone remember those criminal windows mobile devices that HTC used to make on a white-label basis for networks?), and the tablet form factor was dead before the iPad (Anyone else remember the Windows XP devices?).
Just because someone else tried and failed doesn't mean Apple will, they have a record of taking ideas that the market wasn't ready for yet, or that others couldn't polish enough to make succeed, and creating a new category out of it.
Squeaky bum time for Apple: It hasn’t made enough iPhone 7 Pluses
Portsmouth bomb about to be detonated
>>>>Bomb disposal officers actually detonated the bomb at 7am this morning. The event was such a damp squib that they assumed it hadn’t worked and returned for another go at 11am. They then discovered the earlier attempt had actually worked.®
The Officer in charge of the incident Marvin T Martian was quoted as saying "Where's the Kaboom? Where is the Earth shattering kaboom?"
Edward Snowden's 40 days in a Russian airport – by the woman who helped him escape
Blighty's 24-hr Universal Credit outage caused by upgrade glitch
Three posts lacklustre results, angrily mutters over O2 merger rejection
NRA guns down 38,000 Surge.sh sites in anti-parody spray-and-pray
Re: Misleading
Given El Reg has built its business and reputation on mixing bias, name calling, and news, you're clearly "not from around here"
The amount of logos and even a parody copyright statement don't stop a parody being a parody.
I don't normally call people who disagree with me a paid astroturfer, but given your unfamiliarity with the registers style, your defence of the NRA's action and your highly suspect claim not to normally agree with them, I just have one question:
Where can I get a job like yours?
EU commish: We smacked down O2/Three but we didn't take it 'lightly'
French maverick sniffs around O2
Leak – UN says Assange detention 'unlawful'
BOFH: Why, I LOVE work courses. Please tell me more, o wise one!
'Nokia store? I dunno no Nokia store. This here's a Microsoft Reseller'
Chill, luvvies. The ‘unsustainable’ BBC Telly Tax stays – for now
Re: Am I the only person...
In the short term, I agree. Compare the BBC to the ABC, and you'll beg for a license fee.
However, it is correct that in the long term it is not sustainable as a TV tax as people turn away from OTA Broadcast. BBC iplayer live is currently operating on the honour system, but if you're willing to wait 60 mins or so you can legally watch any BBC content free by waiting for it to appear on iPlayer.
Assange™ lawyers demand Swedish prosecution files or no London interview
A gold MacBook with just ONE USB port? Apple, you're DRUNK
We power users winged about things like removal of floppy drives, CD/DVD Drives, obscure ports, etc, etc... but how often does the average Macbook user really use any more than the power port?
I suspect its less than we all think.
The only time I've ever used more than one at a time, was to install windows on the macbook... (1 port for the CD Drive, one for the USB stick to install drivers).
Don't pay for the BBC? Then no Doctor Who for you, I'm afraid
Re: Telly Tax exit stage right!!
>>>>Do you watch any CBS, Disney, MGM content (etc.), and if so do you send money to those organisations every month, or are you also a freeloader?
I don't go onto their website and watch it for free. I either pay for their content, or watch it on a commercial operated service that pays for it.... Unlike Cord Cutters who run to iPlayer.
>>>>Come to that, how much do you send to "The Register" in return for reading its content?
The Register is a commercial service with advertisements, and unlike many on here, I dont freeload by using adblock.
O2 notifies data cops 'for courtesy' ... AFTER El Reg intervenes in email phish dustup
" Companies are required by law in most places to maximise profits."
I believe the correct phrase is "maximise shareholder value", not maximise profits.
This is a very different thing, as the turn is user definable - Network Rail for instance is non-profit, it maximises shareholder value by putting earnings back into the railway network (its Shareholders being the Train Operating Companies).
Another company might "maximise value" by turning away some business to build an aura of exclusivity - trading tangiable value (revenue) for an intangiable result (Branding).
Some might play the short game (sell poor quality as quick as possible then skip town) where as others might play the long game (earn a little less now, but build long term loyalty).
If the law was maximise profits, then companies would never be able to give to charity, and rarely be able to sponsor sports teams. You might consider the latter to be preferable though :p
Dixons Carphone clings to EE, Three in Phones 4U bullet dodge
Telefónica to offload O2 to Three daddy Hutchison for £10.25bn
Re: So the UK once had the most competitive mobile markets..
>>>>Ideally, we'd get Three technology with O2 customer service, but what's the betting it'll be the other way round?
This is the O2 that declared customer service to be non core to its role as a network operator and shoved everyone over to Capita?
Doctor Who's tangerine dream and Clara's death wish in Last Christmas
Reg man confesses: I took my wife out to choose a laptop for Xmas. NOOOO
Blind justice: Google lawsuit silences elected state prosecutor
>>>>In the US, citizens vote for their state prosecutors – they're elected representatives, not nominees. They answer to the people
That is the myth of American Democracy. Now lets look at that statement through the EyeOfTruth(tm)
>>>>In the US, citizens vote for their state prosecutors through choices the established powers have pre-decided – they're "elected" representatives, not nominees and not independent. They answer to the people who fund their election campaign.
Movie industry's evil plan to destroy the internet is going precisely nowhere
Re: Control your media better.
>>>>>If I went to the police and complained that people kept walking into my house through the front door that had no locks on it or through the windows that had no glass in them and stealing things then I don't think they'd be too impressed. It is the duty of property owners to take all reasonable steps to secure their own property
But this does not change the fact that it still is theft, and still is a crime.
El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.
Re: Made me giggle, all this (pretend?) outrage
>>>>>You want the snark? Stay here. You want the glitzy super duper agile-developed responsive-designed website? Go to Ars Technica or somewhere else.
I want the snark, but I dont want the super duper designed website. Where do I go? not here it seems