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.

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???

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.