Telefonica O2 UK Ltd v British Telecommunications plc Telefonica O2 UK Ltd v British Telecommunications plc Telefonica O2 UK Ltd v British Telecommunications plc [2014] UKSC 42 is a UK enterprise law, concerning telecommunications. Telefonica O2 UK Ltd argued that BT’s charges for connections and terminations were unlawful. BT’s Standard Interconnect Agreement was varied unilaterally in 2009 to change termination charges for 08 numbers, subject to a mobile operator’s right to object, and dispute resolution by Ofcom (unless both parties wanted something else). Under the new scheme, operators would be given charges varying by the amount the originating network charged to callers. If callers paid more, termination charges
O2 (UK) 23 January 2015, Li Ka-shing, owner of Hutchison Whampoa and the Three network (which operates in the UK) entered talks to buy O2 for up to £10.25bn ($15.4bn). However, the move faced tough scrutiny from competition regulators as it would reduce the number of major operators in the UK, when combined with a potential purchase of EE by BT, from four to three. Hutchison Whampoa had previously acquired the O2 network from Telefónica in the Republic of Ireland, which it has since merged into Three. The combined network would have surpassed EE to create the largest mobile network in the