Virgin Media Business and Telefonica announce 10-year mobile data fibre deal

Backhaul deal will give O2 customers better data service in UK

Virgin Media Business has signed a 10-year mobile data capacity deal with Telefonica that should see O2 customers benefiting from faster mobile data access.

Virgin will be connecting base stations to O2's existing network, utilising a high capacity Ethernet system to pave the way for O2's 4G service this summer.

Telefonica hopes the upgraded backhaul will speed up mobile connections in "areas of high footfall or when there's a significant event".

Attaining a good quality of 3G connection in central London on any mobile provider can currently prove a struggle, so Telefonica's approach could prove popular with an increasing number of users who depend on mobile communications to transact business on a daily basis.

Virgin Media Business has now, in fact, secured backhaul contracts with all four UK mobile networks, so such improvements should theoretically appear across the board in time.

"Over the past five years we've seen huge growth in demand for mobile data as the number of consumers using smartphones and tablets has increased," said Adrian Di Meo, CTO of Telefonica UK.

"With our 4G network launching this summer, data growth will only continue to rise and this new fibre agreement with Virgin Media Business will give us the rock-solid foundation we need and help us deliver a great network experience for our customers," he continued.

George Wareing, director of mobile and broadcast at Virgin Media Business, said backhauling data as "absolutely critical" to ensuring mobile operators can provide customers with fast and reliable data, describing the company's deals with other networks as "a sign that the backhaul market is moving extremely quickly and thanks to the speed and resilience of our fibre network, we've been able to make the most of that opportunity".