O2 (UK) first commercial General Packet Radio Service. BT Cellnet, together with BT Group's mobile telecommunications businesses in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, was part of the BT Wireless division. This was spun off from the BT Group in 2002 to form a new holding company, mmO2 plc, which introduced the new "O2" brand for the businesses. In 2005, mmO2 plc was renamed O2 plc. O2 plc was purchased by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica in 2006 for £18 billion. Under the terms of the acquisition, Telefónica agreed to retain the "O2" brand and the company's UK headquarters. O2 plc became Telefónica
O2 (Ireland) also run the network operations for Three Ireland"). The Network team outsource was limited to the Field Operations team along with some other support functions. The Network rollout team & Transmission team remained in-house to facilitate future network changes. It was more cost effective to retain these divisions in-house. In 2006 O2 chose Irish Autism Action as their charity of choice. The three-year deal involved sponsorship, creating awareness, using O2 staff to assist the charity and using technology developed by O2 to assist children affected by autism. In 2010, the company's charity of choice became Headstrong, a charity providing mental