U.K.-based BT is looking to re-enter the country’s mobile space in a deal that could include an acquisition of a current mobile operator.
BT, which has previously stated interest in re-entering the U.K. mobile industry after abandoning the market in 2001, acknowledged that it is in talks to acquire current operator O2 from its current owner Telefónica. BT also said it has received “expressions of interest” from a second mobile operator as well, which The Wall Street Journal stated was market leader EE.
“We continue to develop our own plans for providing enhanced mobile services to business and consumer customers, in line with our previous announcements,” BT noted in a statement. “We remain confident of delivering on these plans and have also been exploring ways of accelerating them, including assessing the merits of an acquisition of a mobile network operator in the U.K. We have received expressions of interest from shareholders in two U.K. mobile network operators, of which one is O2, about a possible transaction in which BT would acquire their U.K. mobile business. All discussions are at a highly preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that any transaction will occur.”
The U.K. market is currently dominated by four mobile operators, including EE, which is a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and Orange, O2, Vodafone and 3.
BT had previously spun off the initial iteration of O2 in 2001, in a move designed to reduce its debt load. The company turned its focus to more traditional telecom services, including triple-play offerings. BT re-entered the mobile space through a mobile virtual network operator agreement with Vodafone that targeted enterprise customers.
Telefónica acquired O2 in 2006 for $31 billion. Telefónica in 2012 announced a network sharing deal in the U.K. with Vodafone that included plans to share some assets across 18,500 cell sites. U.K. operator 3 earlier this year closed on its $1.15 billion acquisition of O2’s Ireland operations.
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