BT Wholesale Lands O2 UK DealBT Wholesale Lands O2 UK Deal

LONDON -- BT has signed a new ten year deal with Telefonica UK to support the introduction of 4G services for millions of O2 mobile customers. Under the terms of the deal, BT will build a new high capacity transmission network to help O2 stay ahead of the continued explosion in mobile data traffic as a result of mobile users accessing mobile internet applications via their smartphone or tablet device. The roll out of 4G services across the UK is expected to place even greater pressure on mobile networks. The new managed network solution from BT Wholesale will provide O2 with the network capacity required to support the increasing demands of customers choosing its planned 4G services. BT will also provide O2 with a sizeable increase in backhaul capacity by delivering the high speed mobile backhaul links between its mobile base stations and the new transmission network. Furthermore, the new transmission network will help O2 migrate from legacy TDM to Ethernet based IP services, helping O2 deliver a host of new applications to its customers whilst reducing its overall transmission costs. BT Group plc