Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
One of ISPreview’s eagle-eyed readers recently spotted that mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) had uploaded an interesting new page on their website, which doesn’t appear to have been meant for public consumption and depicted three new full fibre (FTTP) broadband packages under the ‘O2 Broadband’ branding.
Seasoned industry observers will recall that O2 previously ran their own fixed broadband ISP, which reflected what they acquired from BE Unlimited some years earlier in 2006. But all that changed in March 2013 after Sky (Sky Broadband) agreed to buy their fixed broadband and phone business for upwards of £180m (here). At the time of the sale O2 had about 560,000 customers, which was down from a peak of 671,000 in 2010.
The situation changed again in May 2020 after Liberty Global (Virgin Media) and Telefonica (O2) reached a complementary 50-50 joint venture deal to merge their respective fixed broadband and mobile network businesses in the United Kingdom (here). The merger ultimately resulted in both providers working to offer a new range of mobile and broadband bundles (Volt packages), but O2 opted not to resell its own broadband packages.
Fast-forward to last week and one of ISPreview’s readers (credits to Chris) accidentally spotted an interesting addition hidden within O2’s website (o2.co.uk/shop/o2-broadband), which made mention of an O2 Broadband service offering three full fibre packages – Classic 500 Full Fibre (£10 per month), Plus 1000 Full Fibre (£15) and Ultimate 2000 Full Fibre (£20). All on a short 12-month minimum contract term and applying O2’s latest pricing policies.
The section appeared to be a temporary holding page, not least because the “Choose this package” option and other parts didn’t function, while the proposed pricing looked unrealistic – or perhaps indicative of a trial product. The packages were not a million miles from the sort of trial pricing that giffgaff used before they fully launched their own Full Fibre packages using the VMO2 built nexfibre network last year.
At this point it’s hard to imagine O2 setting up a page as specific as this unless they actually had an ambition to launch such products, although the web page promptly vanished as soon as ISPreview queried it (they’re now redirecting it back to the VMO2 Volt package info. page). As you’d expect, the official line from VMO2 is carefully crafted to avoid either confirming or denying that they might have plans to launch such products in the future.
A spokesperson for VMO2 told ISPreview:
“The page you’ve seen doesn’t reflect a commercial proposition, we regularly test and explore new products and features as part of ongoing development work.
We’ll keep you updated if we have anything to share.”
The move to launch such products, if it ever does come to pass, would of course reflect somewhat of a strategic shift in how VMO2 positions its branding and products. Such a change would also raise questions over how the existing Volt bundles between Virgin Media and O2 might be handled going forward, as well as perhaps causing some speculation over the future position of both brands more generally.
Regular readers will recall that Telefonica’s strategic review appeared to cause quite a bit of upheaval last year (here, here and here), although the recent move by nexfibre to acquire Netomnia for £2bn (here) appeared to indicate that the shared parentage was still firmly committed to working closely together. Time will tell.