News
Report claims U.K. incumbent to use its BT Mobile brand to push low-cost services.
BT will keep EE’s brand following its £12.5 billion acquisition of the mobile operator, it emerged on Friday.
This is according to sources cited by the Financial Times, who said the U.K. incumbent wants to avoid disrupting the country’s biggest mobile player, and will therefore retain the brand for its main mobile service.
BT itself returned to the U.K. mobile market in March 2015 in the form of BT Mobile, an MVNO hosted on EE’s network. By the end of September, the service had attracted more than 200,000 customers, according to BT CEO Gavin Patterson.
As well as keeping EE’s brand, BT also plans to keep BT Mobile, said the FT, and will operate it as a low-cost operator.
The news emerged the same week that EE revealed that CEO Olaf Swantee will step down after BT has completed its takeover.
The deal is still subject to formal approval by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA); as a result, no firm date has been set for its completion. However, the transaction is expected to close by March.
Once that happens, EE will become a new division within BT headed up by Marc Allera, who currently serves as EE’s chief commercial officer.
