O2's mobile broadband network to be given a helping hand by BT partnership

In a move which almost brings the two companies full circle, O2 and BT have announced that they have entered into a partnership which will see BT take on responsibility for maintaining and upgrading O2's networks.

BT was O2's parent company until it was spun out as an independent entity in 2001. Now O2 is owned by Spanish telecoms company Telefonica, and announced last week that it was intending to enter into the fixed line telecoms market, something which would complete its offering and also bring it head to head with BT in BT's core market.

Now, in a multi-million pound five-year agreement, BT's Wholesale division will be revolutionising O2's networks, including its 3G network, enabling O2 to improve the quality of current and next generation services it can offer. O2 has been suffering some performance issues with its 3G network, with the increased traffic resulting from iPhone use, and a handful of data outages towards the end of last  summer; so it's to be hoped that BT's intervention will see the end of unstable 3G performance.

O2's chief of networks Nigel Purdy commented "As we move to an all-IP world and as data traffic volumes increase, the consolidation of our fixed and mobile core networks is a common sense approach that will help future-proof our business and provide the best possible service for our customers."