O2 Home Broadband

If you are one of O2's Home Broadband customers, you will have to understand that O2's Home broadband and Landline services have been purchased by SkyBSB for a cool £180 million with an additional £20 million if it meets the target of the agreement between SkyBSB and O2. 

Personally, I will not have any problems with that news as I think it will be a good news for existing customers as they might receive a better service from Sky rather than O2 after the buy out from SkyBSB. From my experience with O2's Home broadband team, I have no problems in getting through to them under five minutes and users will have access to their customer service 24/7. Moreover, existing O2 customers will get a good discount when they renew their Home broadband contracts with O2. 

From the past, I had some not very good experience with Virgin Media and so I've chosen O2 Home broadband. I feel that O2 has done its job by providing an excellent customer service to their customers. With the take over by SkyBSB, many existing O2 customers are feeling uneasy with the news especially thinking of the money which they might have to spend more if they want to stay with O2 Home broadband or the customer service provided by Sky may be terrible.

Sky had received good results in customer survey last year (2012) based on Ofcom's report. With regard to their price plan, I would have to inform customers that existing home broadband plans are slightly more expensive than O2. Maybe there will be a concession in providing a cheaper service to existing O2 customers when they renew their home broadband contracts later. We shall have a look at it later when Sky release a press statement regarding the issue.

For more information, look here, here, here and here.

Northern Rock

As you all have noticed, Northern Rock is in the news again. This time it will be a decision of the government to see who is going to take over once a prominent British bank. I have known that Northern Rock is actually a household name among the people living in the Midlands and also towards the north of UK.

PM Gordan Brown is in India as he is talking about bilateral trade and to step up cooperation to prevent any sort of terrorism activities. Well, I think the main concern over here would be the decision on Northern Rock. What is going to happen to it then? The bank has borrowed over £26 billion from the Treasury and certainly I really hope that tax payers will not be over burdened by the borrowing.

I have utmost confidence in GM Gordan Brown. Well, he has the caliber and I really hope that his government will be able to solve the existing problem. We will have to see who is the successful bidder for taking over Northern Rock. Will it be Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group that won? Stay tuned.

Updates on Northern Rock

Good news for Northern Rock depositers! Virgin is arriving for a rescue! Although they will be paying just a third of the bank's value, at least Virgin will be paying half what Northern Rock has borrowed. That is really good news. At least the BOE will see money coming in from Virgin.

I think by allowing Virgin to buy off Northern Rock, Virgin is actually going to earn money in the long term. Look at Virgin megastore!!! It is now rebranded as Zavvi!!! Good thing, right?

Have a look at here.