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back to article Orange eyes up TeliaSonera

France Telecom (Orange) has confirmed it's looking at linking up with Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera, after rumours of a possible merger surfaced in the Le Figaro newspaper yesterday. TeliaSonera is partly owned by the Swedish and Finish governments, who have 37 per cent and 14 per cent stakes, respectively, and was created …

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  1. jeremy
    Thumb Down

    Oh dear :(

    Telia is Blizzard's ISP.

    I wonder how this will play out. Blizzard have about 10 million paying customers who rely on Telia to play WoW. Telia hasnt got a great record sadly, and I suspect it will only get worse if Orange take it over.

    Apart from the anti-french angle, takeovers pretty much always cause operational problems. If they cock-up connectivity to WoW servers...well, lets just say I would be the first to cancel my account - till they fix the problem of course :)

    My suspicion is that Orange only want to take TeliaSonera over because they are Blizzard's ISP, possibly with an additional factor that Vivendi - who are french too - own Blizzard.

    I hope my fears are unfounded, but I suspect they will make a terrible mess of it.

    While I am on the anti-french thing - is it just me or does anyone else find it bizarre that we (the UK) have sold key infrastructure to foreign govts? I refer here to EDF primarily, a french govt subsidised company (and hence run to promote French national interests).

    Bah Humbug.

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  2. pctechxp

    if you are anti french

    Why do you put your money into Vivendi by coffing up for WoW

    Talk about hypocrisy.

    Lets hope the board of TeliaSonera aren't a load of surrender monkeys and tell them where to go.

    I agree that any country's infrastructure should not be under the control of foreign governments or any foregin firms , so:

    T-mobile should be changed back to One2One brought back under British control along with O2 and Orange along with all of the water and gas firms.

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  3. Mark Burton
    Unhappy

    Oh for God's sakes

    Just use Vodafone if you really care. (un)fortunately, we live in an integrated global society and whilst I agree that water and electricity should not have been privatised, it's too damn late.

    Still, all those lovely new nuclear power stations that the Labour (weren't they all CND at one point, until they got into power) government wants being run by foriegn organisations is an interesting angle... Cheap plutonium anyone???

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  4. Stephen Baines
    Pirate

    That explains it....

    Now I know why Telia keep on offering me a big discount if only I'd extend my contract for another year or two. They know what will happen if this happens...

    Seeing how well France Telecom did with Orange in the UK when I lived there, and how superb their internet services are in the UK, I'm glad I wasn't tempted.

    I guess us Telia users can look forward to the high value tariffs that Orange offer in the UK. Oh joy. Guess my telephone bill will increase from its current 69 öre a month.

    I know it's rare, but TeliaSonera is one of those rare entities - a state controlled company that actually seems to know what it's doing. After suffering with BT in the UK, I find Telia an absolute joy. They actually apologised to me because I live in the countryside, miles from anywhere, and they could "only" offer me a 24Mbps connection with around 19Mbps after negotiation.

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  5. pctechxp

    mind you

    Most of the organisations maintaining our defence capabilities such as the nuclear deterrent are at least part owned by the Americans (Lockheed Martin Corporation) so we'd be really up **** creek without a paddle if a nutcase Prez got in (wait that's already happened) hell bent on acquiring more land got in (hasn't happened....yet?)

    Utilities and defence should be the preserve of the state I feel for reasons of national security.

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