O2 (United Kingdom)
Encyclopedia
Telefónica UK Limited is a telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

s, internet
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

 and financial
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

 services provider in the United Kingdom owned by Telefónica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...

, forming part of its Telefónica Europe division. It is the second-largest mobile telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom (after Everything Everywhere
Everything Everywhere
Everything Everywhere Limited is a mobile network operator and internet service provider company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mobile network operator in the UK, with around 28 million customers...

) and is headquartered in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

.

O2 was formed in 1985 as Cellnet, a 60:40 joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

 between BT Group
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

 and Securicor
Securicor
Securicor plc was one of the United Kingdom's largest security businesses. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with Group 4 Falck in 2004.-History:...

. In 1999 BT Group acquired Securicor's 40 percent share of Cellnet and the company was later rebranded as BT Cellnet. In June 2000 BT Cellnet launched the world’s first commercial General Packet Radio Service
General Packet Radio Service
General packet radio service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications . GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode...

. BT Cellnet was rebranded as "O2" in 2002, along with BT Group's mobile telecommunications businesses in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

In 2005 it was announced that the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica had agreed to acquire BT Group's European mobile telecommunications businesses for £18 billion as part of the company's expansion in the European communications market
Communications in Europe
*For more information, see these articles about Communications in Europe.See also European Telecommunications Standards Institute...

. As part of the terms of the acquisition Telefónica agreed to retain the "O2" brand and the company's UK headquarters.

History

Between 1985 and 1989, John Carrington was the CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of British Telecom
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

's Mobile Division. It was during this period that Carrington founded Cellnet, launching the company's first cellular service in January 1985. Cellnet was established as a subsidiary of Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio Limited, a 60:40 joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

 between British Telecommunications
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

 and Securicor
Securicor
Securicor plc was one of the United Kingdom's largest security businesses. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with Group 4 Falck in 2004.-History:...

.

After months of rumours and speculation, Peter Bonfield
Peter Bonfield
Sir Peter Bonfield, CBE, FREng is a business executive who has led a number of companies in the fields of electronics, computers and communications. Currently a director of several companies in the USA, Europe and the Far East, he was formerly chief executive of ICL and more recently of BT Group...

 publicly announced on 27 July 1999 that BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

 had agreed to buy Securicor
Securicor
Securicor plc was one of the United Kingdom's largest security businesses. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with Group 4 Falck in 2004.-History:...

's 40 percent share of Cellnet for £3.15 billion. The company was later rebranded as BT Cellnet, and it became a part of BT Wireless, a group of companies owned by BT. Cellnet had five million customers at the time of its acquisition.

BT Cellnet was rebranded as "O2" on 1 May 2002, along with other former BT subsidiaries; Esat Digifone in Ireland, Viag Interkom
O2 (Germany)
Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG is a leading provider of broadband and telecommunications in Germany. The company trades as O2 and Alice...

 in Germany and Telfort Mobiel
Telfort
Telfort B.V. is a Dutch mobile telecommunication company, and a subsidiary of KPN.It operates GSM mobile telecommunications service in the Netherlands...

 in the Netherlands. The rebranding was supported by a European advertising campaign, which began on 16 April 2002, across all four countries, at a cost of £130 million. The main launch campaign ran from 1 May and was developed by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, working alongside brand consultancy Lambie-Nairn
Lambie-Nairn
Lambie-Nairn is an international branding agency within the WPP Group, headquartered in London with offices in Munich, Madrid, Abu Dhabi and Prague...

, creators of the "O2" brand identity.

Telefónica transition (2005-2006)

On 31 November 2005, O2 agreed a takeover by Telefónica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...

, a Spanish telecommunications company, for £17.7 billion (£2 per share) in cash. According to the merger announcement, O2 retained its name and continued to be based in the United Kingdom, keeping both the brand and the management team. The merger became unconditional on 23 January 2006.

Following O2's acquisition, Telefónica undertook a corporate organisational change that saw the merging of its fixed and mobile businesses in Spain, and the transfer of Telefónica's non-Spanish European telecommunications properties into the O2 brand. Thus, the Český Telecom and Eurotel operations in the Czech Republic as well as the Telefónica Deutschland business in Germany were brought under the control of O2, which retained its U.K.-registered public company status with its own board of directors and corporate structures and processes. Telefónica chose to keep its existing mobile phone operations in the rest of the world under the brand Movistar
Movistar
Movistar is a major Spanish mobile phone operator owned by Telefónica Móviles. It operates in Spain and in many Latin American countries. It is the largest carrier in Spain with 22 million customers and 41.58% of market share. Its principal competitor in Latin America is America Movil...

. This name is used in Spain and in most of Latin America countries, operated by a separate management team.

Industrial expansion (2007-present)

On 15 July 2009, O2 entered the financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

 industry with the launch of O2 Money
O2 Money
O2 Money is a range of financial services provided by O2 in the United Kingdom.Launched on 15 July 2011, O2 Money debuted as line of Visa cash cards issued by O2 and provided by NatWest. The cards enabled O2 customers to use digital currency as an alternative to cash or cheques.O2 announced in a...

, which was the first step in the process of incorporating financial services into mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s. Future plans include manufacturing Near Field Communication
Near Field Communication
Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...

 (NFC) technology in mobile phones in the United Kingdom. It was also announced that its NFC technology is ready, but pending support from large retailers and handset manufacturers before a mass rollout.

Network

BT Cellnet launched the UK'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
4G
In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to the 3G and 2G families of standards. In 2009, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s...

 connection using LTE
3GPP Long Term Evolution
3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques...

 technology installed in six masts in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

. The technology, which was supplied by Huawei
Huawei
Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...

, achieved a peak downlink rate of 150 Mbps, with future versions of the technology predicted to reach speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

NFC

O2 has been trialling an NFC
Near Field Communication
Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...

 payment system since 2007. O2 has since been in discussions with large retailers, such as Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 and W. H. Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...

, for the deployment of the necessary electronic point of sale units, and with handset manufacturers, such as Apple and Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

, to enable NFC technology on all future devices.

O2 issued a press release on 23 February 2011 detailing its “second phase” for O2 Money. The phase involves the company’s discontinuation its O2 branded cash card
ATM card
An ATM card is a card issued by a bank, credit union or building society that can be used at an ATM for deposits, withdrawals, account information, and other types of transactions, often through interbank networks.Some ATM cards can also be used:* at a branch, as identification for in-person...

s and the release of a “mobile wallet” application for Android and iOS devices. The application will use NFC technology embedded in a phone to access money banked with Barclays via O2.

Environmental impact

In February 2009, O2 became the first mobile telecommunications provider to be certified with the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint. O2 attained the standard after saving 47,000 tonnes of carbon over the previous three years through its energy efficiency measures, including a £1.4 million distribution of smart metering technology
Smart meter
A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the...

 across the company's cell site
Cell site
A cell site is a term used to describe a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed, usually on a radio mast, tower or other high place, to create a cell in a cellular network...

s, offices and retail stores, and upgrades to more energy efficient systems across its mobile phone network
Cellular network
A cellular network is a radio network distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area...

. In addition to distributing energy efficient LED
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...

 lighting and boiler system controls
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...

, the company was also able to reduce energy use by removing air conditioning
Air conditioning
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...

 units from some of its cell sites and reducing computer monitor standby times.

O2 is a voluntary participant in the 10:10
10:10
Drono Acharya composed the film's songs and Ritam Sen, Sandip Chakrabarty, Padmanabha Dasgupta, Rana Basu Thakur and Rangeet wrote the lyrics.-External links:* IMDB Title* * *...

 climate change campaign, which requires participants to cut their carbon emissions by 10 percent by the end of 2010. The campaign was launched on 1 September 2009 at the Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...

 in London, and now has 20,000 individual participants, 1,000 businesses, and 500 other bodies.

Marketing

O2 adopted the slogan "See what you can do" in 2002 after the company's demerger from BT Cellnet. The slogan was later changed to "It's your O2" in May 2006, and again on 10 April 2008 to "We’re better, connected", as part of a brand refresh that cost £5 million.

The O2 (Millennium Dome)

O2 is the sponsor of The O2 Arena
The O2 arena (London)
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...

. Since its launch in the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...

 has been transformed and rebranded by O2 into an entertainment venue. O2 customers can get Priority Tickets up to 48 hours before they are released to the general public. The O2 offers exclusive areas for O2 customers, including the blueroom bar and the O2 lounge, where access is granted through new mobile technology bar codes. Once inside, O2 customers can change their experience of these areas by dictating the wallpaper designs and jukebox requests through text. O2 also contributed 'O2 angels', a team of people trained to greet and direct visitors, providing a warm human face to the brand. Other smaller touches include changing the lighting, carpets and seats in the arena to the colour blue.

Academy venues

O2 is partnered with Live Nation
Live Nation
Live Nation is a live-events company based in Beverly Hills, California, focused on concert promotions. Live Nation formed in 2005 as a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications, which then merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 to become Live Nation Entertainment....

 and the Academy Music Group
Academy Music Group
Academy Music Group is a leading owner-operator of music venues in the United Kingdom. They operate a number of medium sized venues, the majority of which took the name Carling Academy after their sponsor Carling. Some of these academies also contain smaller venues used for less well known acts...

, allowing O2 to rename the music venues. The partnership allows O2 to offer customers priority access to all events at O2 Academy venues as well as Live Nation promoted events across the United Kingdom.

O2 customers receive 48 hour pre-sales access to approximately 4,500 events each year as well as perks at the venues themselves and access to a consistent flow of content. Perks include; unique O2 Academy Angels in the venue with giveaways; a warm up bar with bespoke music themed furniture and games, free artist content bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

ed to customers phones and live experiences such as mobile phone "tattooing".

O2 Academy venues:

  • O2 ABC Glasgow
  • O2 Academy Brixton
  • O2 Academy Leicester
    O2 Academy Leicester
    The O2 Academy Leicester is a music venue Located in the English City of Leicester on the University of Leicester campus.O2 Academy Leicester is the second largest purpose built live music venue in the city with a 1,450 Capacity...

  • O2 Academy Sheffield


  • O2 Academy Birmingham
  • O2 Academy Glasgow
  • O2 Academy Liverpool
  • O2 Shepherds Bush Empire


  • O2 Academy Bournemouth
  • O2 Academy Islington
  • O2 Academy Newcastle


  • O2 Academy Bristol
  • O2 Academy Leeds
    O2 Academy Leeds
    The O2 Academy Leeds is a music venue situated in Leeds intended as a larger music venue for the city. It is run by the Academy Music Group and follows in-line with their other music venues around the UK...

  • O2 Academy Oxford


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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