O2 today unveiled plans to accelerate growth of its mobile network and build significant headroom for mobile data, in a multi-year programme of investment totaling hundreds of millions of pounds.

The planned investment will cover upgrade of the current radio network and also the delivery of new sites. 200 sites will be delivered in London alone in the next 12 months, 40 of which will be live by Christmas 2009. In 2010 other areas of the UK will see similar developments.
Derek McManus, Chief Technology Officer for O2 in the UK said: "Anticipating growth in demand for mobile services, we have quarter on quarter increased investment in our voice and data networks. Our £500m investment over the last two years has enabled us to offer our customers the best products in the world, including the Apple iPhone and Palm Pre.

"In the past 12 months the mobile industry has seen an unprecedented change in demand. The introduction of world-class devices, in combination with a wide variety of data applications, has brought about a dramatic change in customer behaviour and created an exponential demand on mobile data networks. To put this in context, watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously.

"We are now aggressively accelerating our network growth programme to ensure we have significant headroom for the future and retain our focus on being number one for customer satisfaction."

About O2's Network
• O2's 3G network covers over 84% of the UK population and is 100% HSDPA enabled.
• O2 was ranked highest for customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2009.
• O2 was awarded Best Network in both the Mobile and Mobile Choice awards 2009.
• In March 2009, O2 and Vodafone announced a strategic partnership to share network infrastructure across the UK. 100 joint sites are now live in the programme with more planned for roll-out in 2010.
• O2 has partnered with The Cloud and BT Openzone to offer 7,500 WiFi hotspots across the UK.
About O2
• Telefónica O2 UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with 21 million mobile customers and 527,126 fixed broadband customers as at 30 September 2009.
• Telefónica O2 UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc which is a business division of Telefónica S.A. and which owns O2 in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and has 46 million customers.
• In 2006 Telefónica Europe acquired Be*, the UK fixed broadband provider, and in October 2007 O2 launched its broadband service using the Be* network.
• O2 is the naming rights partner of The O2, the world-class entertainment venue.
• O2 was ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2009.
• In February 2009 O2 became the first UK mobile operator to be officially certified with the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of O2's commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and the 15% reduction in energy consumption achieved over the past three years.
• O2 was launched on 1 May 2002 and now has more customers than any other UK mobile network.
• O2's UK mobile network covers 99% of the UK's population. O2's 3G network covers over 80% of the UK population and is fully HSDPA-enabled, providing speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps for customers with an HSDPA-enabled device.
• Telefónica Europe also owns 50% of the Tesco Mobile and Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture businesses in the UK and Germany.
• For further press information about O2 go to www.o2.co.uk/news
Source: http://www.o2.com/media/press_releases/press_release_14522.asp