Sky seals deal for Telefonica's BE and O2 broadband
Giant grows a little phatter
Sky has agreed a fee with Telefonica for O2 and BE's fixed line-telephony business, which will make the satellite giant the second-largest broadband provider in the UK.
With bundles of services becoming increasingly popular, and our methods of consuming content changing, Sky is well aware of the importance of a decent broadband offering.
The company was already offering many of its customers a broadband component to their package, but this deal makes it considerably larger in this sphere.
£200 million
Sky will pay £180 million for BE and O2 broadband, plus potentially another £20 million if the migration of customers goes to plan.
All existing BE and O2 broadband customers will be migrated onto Sky's unbundled network when the deal is rubber-stamped.
Sky has already picked up 4.2 million broadband users, 3.6 million of which also subscribe to telephone and TV services (known as triple-play).
Sky's direct rivals have major internet offerings, so this move makes a lot of sense. Virgin Media's fibre cable network gives it a speed advantage over pretty much everyone, and communications giant BT owns much of the UK's current infrastructure - although it is currently playing catch-up on fibre and investing heavily to update the ageing copper wire network.
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O2 broadband and BE have shrunk drastically in the last couple of years, but still boast more than half a million users - a significant boost for Sky's user base.
For O2 customers who want to know more about the potential changes to their services, a page has been set up at http://www.o2.co.uk/broadband/broadbandchanges.
Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content. After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.