page_title: O2 (UK)
section_title: Network
hierarchical_section_title: O2 (UK) / Network
caption_attribution_description: English: O2 offices off Dewsbury Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. Taken 20th April 2009.
context_page_description: Telefonica UK Limited, trading as O2 UK, is a telecommunications services provider in the United Kingdom, owned by Telefónica, headquartered in Slough, England. With 34 million customers as of February 2020, O2 is the second largest UK mobile network operator, after EE, and followed by Vodafone and Three.
  The company was formed in 1985 as Cellnet, at first a joint venture between BT Group and Securicor, later wholly owned by BT. Cellnet was the second mobile phone network to launch in the UK after Vodafone three years earlier. BT demerged its mobile division in 2002 as mmO2 plc, which introduced the "O2" brand for the businesses. In 2006 the company was purchased by Telefónica, who retained the O2 brand and the company's UK headquarters. Telefónica and Liberty Global reached an agreement in May 2020 to merge the company with Virgin Media.
context_section_description: BT Cellnet launched the world's first GPRS network on 22 June 2000, although GPRS-enabled devices were uncommon at that time.
  O2 publicly announced on 15 December 2009 that it had successfully demonstrated a 4G connection using LTE technology installed in six masts in Slough. The technology, which was supplied by Huawei, achieved a peak downlink rate of 150 Mbps.
  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.
  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. 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 per cent of the UK population (expected to cover at least 99 per cent when outdoors) and at least 95 per cent of the population of each of the UK nations – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – by the end of 2017 at the latest. 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.
  On 27 March 2017, following the release of iOS 10.3, O2 launched VoLTE (4G) and WiFi Calling for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users, and stated more devices would be eligible at a later date. As of September 2017, this has been extended to users of the iPhone: SE (first generation), 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X (from 3 November 2017). Samsung Galaxy: S7, S7 Edge, S8, S8+, Note 8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium and OnePlus 6.
caption: The O2 offices in Leeds
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