O2 (UK) telephone line and broadband business of Telefónica UK, trading under the O2 and Be brands. The company agreed to pay £180 million initially, followed by a further £20 million after all customers had been transferred to Sky's existing business. The sale was subject to regulatory approval in April 2013, and was subsequently approved by the Office of Fair Trading on 16 May 2013. O2 began trialling a Near Field Communication (NFC) payment system in 2007. In 2009, O2 was in discussions with large retailers, such as Tesco and W. H. Smith, for the deployment of the necessary electronic point of
Rochester Telephone Corporation for resale. In their early years, the company's subsidiaries reported strong profits. In 1983, as the federal government's breakup of the Bell telephone monopoly increased competition in the telecommunications industry dramatically, Rochester Telephone launched its second unregulated venture, founding the RCI Corporation. RCI installed a microwave communications network in New York State and a fiber optic hookup with Chicago. After purchasing an additional fiber optic link with Washington, D.C., the company's operations spanned 12 cities. In the mid-1980s, Rochester Telephone also entered the new radio telephone industry, when it founded Rochester Tel Mobile Communications. By the end of the decade,