Fourteen years after selling its mobile business, BT is back in a big way – the carrier has agreed to purchase EE for $19 billion. BT currently offers wireless service through a mobile virtual network operator agreement with EE.
BT will buy the EE shares owned by Deutsche Telekom and Orange. Those investors will receive a combination of cash and shares in BT. Once the deal closes, DT will own 12% of BT, and Orange will own 4%.
EE is the largest mobile operator in the U.K., with 24.5 million customers and almost 8 million LTE subscribers. The company was formed in 2010 as a joint venture between DT and Orange.
For BT, the deal will add the U.K.’s largest base of mobile subscribers to its existing customer base of landline subscribers. BT also offers broadband Internet and TV services.
The deal makes BT the largest provider of both mobile and landline telecom service in the U.K. The company is expected to bundle these services with its Internet and TV offerings.
European operators have been slower to roll out LTE services than have North American carriers. EE was one of the first to roll out LTE as it was able to repurpose 1800 MHz spectrum that was originally licensed for 2G services. This meant that EE was able to get started with its LTE deployments without waiting until it was able to acquire new spectrum.
With almost 8 million LTE subscribers, EE now has the largest LTE customer base of any operator in Europe, according to BT. Three quarters of the people in the U.K. are covered by EE’s LTE network, according to BT.
