It’s looking like O2 and BT are getting quite pally in the 4G world. O2 got a slice of the 4G pie in the recent auctions, as did BT, but it looks like BT will be providing a large amount of infrastructure for the O2 4G network after a cool £500 million changed hands.
The ten year deal involves the backbone and kit which will cope with a huge uptick in data traffic, however there’s an expectation that BT might be using a slice of the O2 4G network along with their own BT 4G frequencies and vice-versa. BT spent just £186 million for 2 x 15MHz of 2.6GHz and 1 x 20MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum, but they state that this isn’t for a mobile network, perhaps as a “last mile” replacement to deliver fast data to homes and businesses. The £186 million was already a bargain, but they’ve now grabbed £500 million from O2. Oh, and let’s not forget that O2 have already spent £550 million securing 2 x 10MHz of the 800MHz spectrum.
Leigh, I was just wondering where you saw this? Is there anywhere I can find out some more?
That’s not to mention all the cash BT will most likely get from supplying the data infrastructure (leased lines, etc). BT has the monopoly for most of this kind of thing still, even though a few competitors are starting to catch up. BT do alright, don’t they!
Don’t forget O2 used to be Cellnet, so was once owned by BT. I’ll bet there has been a lot of deals built into the contracts for infrastructure since BT sold it.