BT Wins Contract For O2’s Mobile and Fixed Networks

BT Wholesale is to consolidate O2’s mobile and fixed core networks in the UK into “one cost-effective network” after the two companies signed a multi-million pound managed services agreement.

“The five year contract is to provide the backhaul (i.e. core network traffic) for O2’s LLU (local loop unbundling) operation,” explained a BT Wholesale spokesman to eWEEK Europe. BT Wholesale already provides core network management support and a managed network service for O2’s mobile broadband customers.

BT said it would use its 21st Century Network (21CN) platform to consolidate O2 UK’s mobile and fixed networks.

“As we move to an all Internet-protocol 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,” said Nigel Purdy, head of networks at Telefonica O2 UK.

The rising demand for mobile broadband in the UK has placed increasing strain on networks, which are having to deal with the transfer of increasing amounts of data.

Last year O2 suffered a number of embarrassing network failures in London, and at Christmas the boss of O2 publicly apologised for the failures, blaming the bandwidth strain from the increasing use of smartphones.

The apology came after O2 had already decided to overhaul its mobile network, promising to spend millions in order to give it “significant headroom for mobile data”.

O2 is also known to have trialed the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in Slough (the headquarters of O2 in the UK) in partnership with Huawei.

BT said the new backhaul deal will let O2 deliver a range of next-generation communications services and cut its capital expenditure.

Last month O2 announced it was to enter the home phone market, bringing it into direct competition with its former owner BT.