O2 SEEKS HELP FROM BT WITH NEW PARTNERSHIP

O2 and BT have just announced a partnership that will allow BT to take responsibility for the maintenance and upgrade of O2’s networks.

The new multi-million pound five year collaboration is interesting as BT was previously O2’s parent company until it became an independent organization in 2001. O2 is currently owned by Telefonica, a Spanish telecoms company.

The decision to partner up comes as O2 recently announced its intentions to complete its offering and break into BT’s core market of fixed lines telecoms, which would place the two companies in direct competition.

The agreement will see that BT’s wholesale division revolutionizes a number of O2’s networks, such as the 3G network, thereby improving the services currently offered by O2 and those that it plans to offer in the future.

Nigel Purdy, O2’s chief of networks, believes the partnership is beneficial as the company looks toward the future.

“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,” he said.

O2 is hoping that BT will help to work out some kinks in its 3G network specifically, such as eliminating the possibility of data outages likely caused by increased traffic on the network as iPhone sales and usage is on the rise.

by Taylor Turner