BT signs network deal with EE

UK telco BT has won the right to run on UK-based digital communications company EE's mobile network, as the two parties announced yesterday that they would be signing a "virtual network" agreement.

According to techradar.com BT had been trying to woo UK networks to help it provide its own mobile service with the two companies officially partnering up once the final contract was signed.

Right now this meant just business clients and BT employees would be able to use the power of EE 4G, but according to BT, it planned to build on its consumer Wi-Fi service too.

According to commentators, this could be another step forward by BT to come back as a consumer network, almost 11 years after it bid goodbye to O2.

Earlier this year, outlining its ambitions, BT said it would launch a self-branded 4G mobile service in 2014.

According to CEO Ian Livingston it was "highly possible" BT-branded 4G SIM cards would be seen next year.

According to techradar though BT was quiet on its moves, it was evident that it would bring mobile into its media packages soon, and offer up some more competition for the rest of the market.

According to The Register, there were not many details available on the move yet, apart from the fact that EE had been selected from a number of various possible suppliers and that EE would be providing carriage for BT Mobile.

Both companies are hoping for a "seamless" transition for consumers and that there would be many more customers to add.

BT which had always been in mobile, in one way or another, had in 1986 launched one of the UK's two mobile networks under the Cellnet brand, it spun off in 2002.

Cellnet which was already called O2 by that point,  is now part of Telefonica.

BT Mobile, with a relatively small operation, caters to corporate and enterprise customers with fixed access and other services. That would continue, with EE carrying the traffic.

The deal would see BT push into consumer mobile, as it became able to bundle mobile with broadband, TV and fixed telephony in the much-heralded "quad player" model.

The two companies tested spectrum sharing down in Cornwall well before this year's 4G auctions, to check whether the same radio spectrum could provide both fixed and mobile coverage at the same time, and the tests proved it was possible at 800Mhz at least.