BT will re-launch its consumer mobile operations after a new partnership was signed with EE.
The agreement between the companies will enable BT to use the EE network as part of a wholesale contract, including the EE 4G network.
“BT and EE have signed an agreement to proceed, on an exclusive basis, to a contract for EE to provide mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services to BT’s customers and employees”, reads the official press release. “The multi-year agreement, subject to final contract, further strengthens the existing relationship in telecommunications between BT and EE.”
The financial details of the deal have yet to be disclosed, but the agreement will allow BT to re-enter the mobile network market after the company has been focused on television and broadband for the past number of years.
Speaking to the Financial Times, a BT executive explained that the company wished to offer its customers what it is calling “quad play” bundles of TV, broadband, mobile and landline contracts.
The EE deal comes after BT decided terminated a similar deal it had with Vodafone, following Vodafone’s Cable & Wireless Worldwide purchase last year.
O2 also was said to have put in a bid to provide BT with access to its 3G and 4G networks.
BT will return to the retail mobile market 11 years after it broke ties with O2, formerly known as BT Cellnet.
Business customers who are signed up to BT will now be able to utilise the EE 4G network, which already covers 100 locations across the UK.
BT may also be able to supplement EE’s 4G offering with its own service, as the company purchased £186.5 million worth of 4G mobile spectrum as part of the Ofcom auction in January.
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