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There’s a lot of chatter in the air at the moment following reports of BT bidding for EE, and Three eyeing up O2 UK for a buyout, but apparently other players are also launching into action with new reports claiming that Sky is penning a deal with O2 owner Telefonica to launch its own mobile network services.
The word comes from Reuters, which claims that the Sky TV group wants to “launch a mobile service from 2016” via a deal with Telefonica. The firm will reportedly offer “voice and data services to all customers through a wholesale partnership with Telefonica’s O2 network.”
The move appears to represent part of a growing trend of various communications and entertainment providers seeking to broaden their portfolios in order to offer a range of services to consumers in combined packages, including home and mobile broadband, mobile calls, texts and data, TV, landlines, and more. Sky only expanded into home broadband from its TV business seven years ago but has managed to become the UK’s second largest internet provider in that small time frame. Mobile networking is clearly the next target.
However, it will be interesting to see how a Sky deal with Telefonica’s O2 progresses, as Telefonica has recently agreed a sale of O2 UK to Three UK owner Hutchinson Whampoa. That doesn’t necessarily negate any kind of wholesale agreement Sky might have with O2 though. Telefonica also provides mobile network services to Tesco Mobile via O2.
So far there have been no additional details regarding the Sky deal on the subject of money exchanged.
13:04, 29 Jan 2015
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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