UK ISP Sky Broadband Confirms Quad Play Bundle with O2 Based Mobile

Sky (Sky Broadband) has today announced a new multi-year wholesale partnership with mobile operator Telefonica UK (O2) that will allow the ISP to offer a new range quad-play bundles to their customers, including 2G, 3G and 4G (Mobile Broadband) based mobile tariffs.

The news is unsurprising because Sky has spent most of the past two years sniffing around the market in the hope of finding a partner to help them offer a mobile solution and thus become a true quad-play provider in the UK. Initially it looked as if Vodafone might be the right fit and last year saw tentative talk of a collaboration, which even resulted in a moderately sized trial (here).

However since then the market has changed, not least with regards to Vodafone’s imminent (spring 2015) move back into the consumer fixed line broadband market, which Sky might perceive as a competitive threat. Meanwhile BT looks set to gobble EE, which means they’re no longer an option either.

The situation meant that Three UK and O2 were the only two operators left to pick and the recent news that Three UK’s parent, Hutchison Whampoa, had made a £10.25bn cash offer for Telefonica UK makes today’s deal somewhat of a no brainer for Sky.

Jeremy Darroch, Group Chief Executive, Sky said:

“As the UK’s leading brand for home entertainment and communications, Sky has a proven ability to launch new services, at scale. We know our 11.5 million customers trust Sky to offer them the best quality and choice and have an appetite to take more from us. Through our partnership with Telefónica UK, we can build on our expertise in content, innovation and service to launch a range of exciting new services and exploit the opportunities for growth in the fast-changing mobile sector.”

Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefónica UK, said:

“We’re pleased to welcome Sky to our roster of innovative, successful partnerships, through which we help partners grow their offer to customers. Sky understands the importance of a strong network and excellent customer experience and has made us a trusted partner to help deliver brilliant services. This will widen consumer choice still further and demonstrates the lively competitiveness of the UK market. We’re looking forward to working with Sky.”

Sky now plans to launch its first mobile telephony services to customers in 2016, which means they’ll be trailing BT and Vodafone that both separately plan to go quad-play during the first half of this year.