. telef nica uk limited type subsidiary industry telecommunications internet founded 1985 as cellnet founder john carrington headquarters slough berkshire united kingdom area served united kingdom key people mark evans ceo revenue 2.973 billion 2010 1 number of employees 21 580 2013 parent telef nica subsidiaries giffgaff website www.o2.co.uk telef nica uk limited trading as o2 stylised as o2 is a telecommunications services provider in the united kingdom owned by the spanish multinational telef nica . it is the second largest mobile telecommunications provider in the united kingdom after ee limited and is headquartered in slough . 2 o2 was formed in 1985 as cellnet a 60 40 joint venture between bt group and securicor . in 1999 bt group acquired securicor s 40 percent share of cellnet and the company was later rebranded as bt cellnet . 3 in june 2000 bt cellnet launched the world s first commercial general packet radio service . 4 bt cellnet together with bt group s mobile telecommunications businesses in germany ireland and the netherlands were part of the bt wireless division . this was spun off from the bt group in 2002 to form a new holding company mmo2 plc which introduced the new o2 brand for the businesses . mmo2 plc was subsequently renamed o2 plc. 5 o2 plc was purchased by the spanish telecommunications company telef nica in 2006 for 18 billion . under the terms of the acquisition telef nica agreed to retain the o2 brand and the company s uk headquarters . 6 o2 plc became telef nica europe . contents 1 history 1.1 1985 to 2005 1.2 telef nica acquisition 1.3 since 2007 diversification 1.4 sale attempts 2 network 3 former operations 3.1 fixed line and broadband 3.2 payment system 4 marketing 4.1 branding 4.2 sponsorships 4.3 naming rights 4.3.1 academy venues 5 environmental record 6 references 7 external links history edit 1985 to 2005 edit between 1985 and 1989 john carrington was the ceo of british telecom s mobile division and the chairman of cellnet . it was during this period that carrington launched cellnet s first cellular service following the innovative development work by bt spectrum who initiated the chain of cells between london heathrow and bt tower in january 1985 . 7 cellnet was established in 1985 as a joint subsidiary of btcr british telecom cellular radio providing the engineering knowledge and tscr telecom securicor cellular radio limited providing the financial investment resulting in a 60 40 joint venture between british telecommunications and securicor . the equipment used was primarily a motorola system initially designed for the american mobile phone system amps and had to be adapted for the british system total access communications tacs . the system was so unready that the initials motorola used to designate the network exchanges emx became popularly known as european motorola experiment and had to be programmed in machine code loaded by tape . in the early days of the system mobile calls cost 1 per minute . 8 after months of rumours and speculation peter bonfield publicly announced on 27 july 1999 that bt had agreed to buy securicor s 40 % share of cellnet for 3.15 billion . cellnet had five million customers at the time of its acquisition . 8 the company was later rebranded as bt cellnet when and it became a part of bt wireless a group of companies owned by bt . bt announced on 3 september 2001 that the bt wireless business would be spun off from the main group as a newly listed holding company mmo2 plc operating under the o2 brand . 9 shareholders approved the plan at an extraordinary general meeting on 23 october 2001 . 10 bt cellnet relaunched as o2 on 18 june 2002 along with other former bt subsidiaries ; esat digifone in ireland viag interkom in germany and telfort mobiel in the netherlands . the rebranding was supported by a european advertising campaign which began on 16 april 2002 across all four countries at a cost of 130 million . the main launch campaign ran from 18 june and was developed by vallance carruthers coleman priest working alongside brand consultancy lambie nairn creators of the o2 brand identity . 11 telef nica acquisition edit on 30 november 2005 o2 agreed to a takeover by telef nica a spanish telecommunications company for 17.7 billion 2 per share in cash . it went through finally in 2006 . 12 according to the merger announcement o2 retained its name and continued to be based in the united kingdom keeping both the brand and the management team . the merger became unconditional on 23 january 2006 . following the acquisition of o2 telef nica undertook a corporate organisational change that saw the merging of its fixed and mobile businesses in spain and the transfer of telef nica s non spanish european telecommunications properties into the o2 brand . thus the esk telecom and eurotel operations in the czech republic as well as the telef nica deutschland business in germany were brought under the control of o2 which retained its uk registered public company status with its own board of directors and corporate structures and processes . telef nica chose to keep its existing mobile phone operations in the rest of the world under the brand movistar . this name is used in spain and in most of the latin american countries operated by a separate management team . since 2007 diversification edit on 15 july 2009 o2 entered the financial services industry with the launch of o2 money which was the first step in the process of incorporating financial services into mobile phones . future plans include manufacturing near field communication nfc technology in mobile phones in the united kingdom . 13 it was also announced that its nfc technology is ready but pending support from large retailers and handset manufacturers before a mass rollout . o2 and vodafone signed a deal in june 2012 which will see the two companies pool their network technology creating a single national grid of 18 500 transmitter sites . both networks will continue to carry their own independent mobile spectrum . 14 in july 2012 o2 had to apologise to almost 8 million customers after a network switching subsystem failure led to a 24 hour blackout of the service across the uk and ireland . 15 the problem which prevented a third of its customers phones registering on the network also affected customers of mvno networks tesco mobile and giffgaff . 16 to apologise for this o2 announced that it would be giving hundreds of thousands of its customers compensation for the issue . 17 pay monthly customers received a 10 % discount on their bill whereas pay as you go users received a 10 % refund on first top up in september . sale attempts edit on 24 november 2014 it was reported that bt were in talks to buy back o2 while at the same time bt confirmed that it was also in talks to buy ee . 18 bt subsequently entered into exclusive talks with ee . 19 on 23 january 2015 li ka shing owner of hutchison whampoa and the three network which operates in the uk entered talks to buy o2 for up to 10.25 bn 15.4 bn . however the move could face tough scrutiny from competition regulators as it would reduce the number of major operators in the uk when combined with a potential purchase of ee by bt from four to three . 20 hutchison whampoa had previously acquired the o2 network from telef nica in the republic of ireland which it has since merged into three . 21 the combined network would surpass ee to create the largest mobile network in the uk . 22 the deal was subject to regulatory approval . 22 the european commission decided in december 2015 not to refer hutchison s takeover of telef nica s o2 business in the uk to the country s competition and markets authority 23 which had asked to be allowed to investigate the planned acquisition arguing that as the british competition regulator it and not the commission should have the right to rule on the transaction which it argued threatens to affect significantly competition in the uk retail mobile and wholesale mobile markets claiming that its investigation of the takeover would avoid duplication and fragmentation . 24 on 11 may 2016 the european commission officially blocked the tie up of o2 and three arguing that the marger would reduce consumer choice and lead to a higher cost of services 25 in september 2016 telef nica appointed a number of investment banks to sell the business to investors ahead of a stock market flotation . 26 network edit the o2 offices in leeds bt cellnet launched the world s first gprs network on 22 june 2000 although gprs enabled devices were uncommon at that time . 27 o2 publicly announced on 15 december 2009 that it had successfully demonstrated a 4g connection using lte technology installed in six masts in slough . 28 the technology which was supplied by huawei achieved a peak downlink rate of 150 mbps . 29 in january 2012 the company announced plans to provide free internet to millions of residents and visitors in central london by launching europe s largest free wi fi zone along with free wi fi access for anyone on any network in and around every o2 retail store . 30 on 20 february 2013 ofcom announced that o2 had been awarded spectrum in the 800 mhz band for 4g lte coverage bidding around 550 million for the spectrum . 31 this spectrum came with a coverage obligation from ofcom and o2 is obliged to provide a mobile broadband service for indoor reception to at least 98 % of the uk population expected to cover at least 99 % when outdoors and at least 95 % of the population of each of the uk nations england northern ireland scotland and wales by the end of 2017 at the latest . 32 the 4g lte service became available to customers in london leeds and bradford on 29 august 2013 and expanded to a further ten cities by the end of the year . 33 frequencies used on the o2 uk network frequency protocol class 900 mhz gsm gprs edge 2g 1 800 mhz gsm gprs edge 2g 900 mhz umts hsdpa hspa 3g 2 100 mhz umts hsdpa hspa dc hspa 3g 800 mhz lte 4g 1 800 mhz lte 4g former operations edit fixed line and broadband edit alongside mobile telephone services the company also provided fixed line services and home broadband . o2 purchased be un limited an internet service provider in the uk for 50 million in june 2006 . 34 o2 retained the be brand and launched a separate o2 branded broadband service on 15 october 2007 using the be network . o2 announced in june 2011 a fibre optic broadband service designed to compete with the bt infinity product using fttc technology . 35 bskyb agreed on 1 march 2013 to buy the fixed telephone line and broadband business of telef nica uk trading under the o2 and be brands . the company agreed to pay 180 million initially followed by a further 20 million after all customers had been transferred to sky s existing business . the sale was subject to regulatory approval in april 2013 36 and was subsequently approved by the office of fair trading on 16 may 2013 . 37 payment system edit main article o2 money o2 began trialling a near field communication nfc payment system in 2007 . 38 o2 has since been in discussions with large retailers such as tesco and w. h. smith for the deployment of the necessary electronic point of sale units and with handset manufacturers such as apple and samsung to enable nfc technology on all future devices