The first real tangible benefits of the Orange T-Mobile UK merger will soon be felt by their customers. Starting from October users of either network will be able to utilise the other network signal when their own is struggling. Effectively they will have a sort of UK roaming.

When the service rolls out in October it will not be automatic, as there are handset issues which need to be addressed, however you will be able to opt-in to the service if you use either network.

New handsets issued by the companies will no doubt come pre-configured to switch between networks automatically and over time the whole service will therefore become totally automated.

This could be a huge selling point for the merged companies and it will be interesting to see if O2 and Vodafone consider a similar type of arrangement in the face of such strong competition.

For users of Orange business mobiles this is great news as a better signal in more areas can only be a good thing for businesses with their team spread throughout the UK.