BSkyB buys O2 and BE broadband

[xxMATTGxx]

I thought I would post this for anyone who is with O2 or BE for their internet services.


BSkyB buys O2 and BE broadband businesses from Telefonica

British Sky Broadcasting is buying the UK broadband and fixed line businesses of Spain's Telefonica.

It will give Sky half a million customers who use the O2 and BE brands for their home phone or broadband.

It will pay an initial £180m to Telefonica, with up to another £20m being paid once the customers have been switched to Sky.

Sky said the transaction would make it the second biggest UK broadband provider.

Telefonica said the deal would allow it to concentrate on providing better mobile services, including rolling out 4G.

Sky has taken on 4.2 million broadband customers since launching the service in 2006.

The deal will allow Sky to leapfrog Virgin Media and close the gap on the number one provider: BT.

If it is cleared by regulators the deal should be completed in April.

"Sky has been the UK's fastest-growing broadband and telephony provider since we entered the market six years ago," said BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch.

"The acquisition of Telefonica UK's consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business will help us accelerate this growth."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21627614

[Lee]

Sky need to work on improving their broadband for users though because right now it's no where near as fast as Virgin or BT Inifity for example :P

[peteyt]

I'm not happy about this. I moved from Sky to o2 Broadband a few years ago due to Sky changing all their packages. Originally with Sky I was on a 8mb package not really getting half of that (still don't) and unlimited downloads. They decided to change the package so that the 8mb had a limit and it was something stupid if I remember like 10gb (can't remember the exact speed). To get unlimited I would have had to pay for an extra speed when I couldn't even get Max on the higher package.

o2 on the other hand was unlimited (fair usage but I've never had any problems) and as my dad is on o2 pay and go if he topped up like ten quid within 3 months we got the price reduced.

Luckily BT infinity is coming very soon apparently (a few months). The price might be higher but at least it would be an actual improvement.

[Catchy]

Sky need to work on improving their broadband for users though because right now it's no where near as fast as Virgin or BT Inifity for example :P

Unfortunately I'm lumbered with Sky broadband for the time being. Mainly because the landlord sorts out both the Sky package and the broadband for us and we have nothing to do with it. Can honestly say it's the slowest connection I've ever experienced. When I'm downloading something I'd say I get 320kb/s on a good day... Took me around 2 weeks to download a box set which was 60gb and that was with my laptop turned on 24/7. Eurg.

[MKR&*42]

I'm currently with sky, combine it with the fact I live in a small village and my speed is genuinely awful. It's gotten so bad I can't use anything except Habbox. parts of Habbo and Google occasionally from 5pm-11pm lol :@