10 year deal will see Virgin’s fibre network connected to O2 base stations to help cope with future data demands
O2 has signed a 10 year deal with Virgin Media Business to access its ‘superfast’ fibre network.
The deal see Virgin Media connect its fibre network with its own base stations, which O2 says will help reduce network congestion and boost data speeds for customers.
The deal will provide O2 with additional capacity ahead of its 4G launch this summer, as demand for mobile data from customers, such as bandwidth-heavy services like gaming apps and HD video streaming become more popular.
Each one of the high speed links will deliver speeds of 1Gbps between cell site and their aggregation network.
Virgin Media Business has now secured major backhaul contracts with all four UK Mobile Network Operators, (EE, Vodafone, Three and now O2) offering, what it calls, ‘the UK’s only synchronous Ethernet mobile backhaul service.’
Telefonica UK chief technology officer Adrian Di Meo said: “With our 4G network launching this summer, data growth will only continue to rise and this new fibre agreement with Virgin Media Business will give us the rock solid foundation we need.”
Virgin Media Business director of mobile and broadcast George Wareing added: “Backhauling data is absolutely critical to ensuring that mobile operators are able to provide customers with fast and reliable data services.”
“We’re able to arm networks with the extra capacity needed to make sure that customers don’t experience slow speeds because of data bottlenecks, and that they’re prepared for the future of 4G services and beyond.”