O2 and BT sign business broadband deal
October 15, 2009 at 10:53 am
O2 is to launch a new fixed-line broadband deal for businesses after teaming up with BT Wholesale. The Telefonica-owned company will be launching its new ‘Joined Up’ package that will provide business customers with both mobile and fixed-line broadband solutions.
This news follows on from the announcement by Vodafone recently that it is also teaming up with BT Wholesale for much the same purpose. It will be launching the Vodafone One Net service aimed at businesses soon.
But Ben Dowd, the business sales director at O2, said that “our strategy is different to theirs”. He claimed that O2 would become the “communications integrator of choice by 2012”. He highlighted some of the benefits that the service would provide, including professional consultancy, equipment and data, and said that moving into the fixed-line market would allow O2 to provide business customers with a “genuine end-to-end service”.
And O2 has also hinted that it has already managed to sign some big corporate accounts to the service.
The exact details have not yet been announced, but features such as free outbound calls to O2 mobiles are to be expected. Although O2 has 500,000 fixed-line broadband customers in the UK, it is still focused mainly on non-business consumers, so this new venture will see its customer base grow significantly.
The agreement between O2 and BT Wholesale is a five-year deal, and BT will be responsible for designing and managing the service management centre.
Some analysts have expressed their surprise at the companies’ decision to team up as they have had disagreements before. But it is widely accepted that the move displays good judgement for both O2 and BT Wholesale as they create new opportunities by working together.
