O2 (UK) O2 (UK) Telefónica UK Limited (trading as O2 – stylised as O) is a telecommunications services provider in the United Kingdom, owned by the Spanish multinational Telefónica, and is headquartered in Slough. With 25 million subscribers (as of December 2017), O2 is the second-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom after EE, with Vodafone in third place. O2 was formed in 1985 as Cellnet, a 60:40 joint venture between BT Group and Securicor. In 1999, BT Group acquired Securicor's share of Cellnet and the company was later rebranded as BT Cellnet. In June 2000, BT Cellnet launched the world's
Legal monopoly sometimes call the system a legal monopoly anyway. The creation of Sirius XM Radio by merger left the United States with only one licensed satellite radio broadcasting company. However, the United States Department of Justice decided that this was not harmful to competition, due to the presence of terrestrial broadcasters. Legal monopoly A legal monopoly, statutory monopoly, or "de jure" monopoly is a monopoly that is protected by law from competition. A statutory monopoly may take the form of a government monopoly where the state owns the particular means of production or government-granted monopoly where a private interest is protected