O2 invests in mobile network

Mobile operator puts money where its mouth is to cope with mushrooming demand for mobility

O2 is planning a series of multimillion-pound investments in the coming year to upgrade its mobile network.

The planned investment will cover the upgrade of its current radio network and also the delivery of 200 new sites in the London area in the next 12 months. Other areas of the UK will see similar developments next year, O2 claimed.

Derek McManus, chief technology officer at O2, said: “Anticipating growth in demand for mobile services, we have quarter on quarter increased investment in our voice and data networks.

“Our £500m investment over the past two years has enabled us to offer our customers the best products in the world, including the Apple iPhone and Palm Pre.”

McManus said the past year has sparked an "unprecedented" change in demand.

“The introduction of devices, combined with a wide variety of data applications, has brought about a dramatic change in customer behaviour and created an exponential demand on mobile data networks.

“We are now aggressively accelerating our network growth programme to ensure we have significant headroom for the future and retain our focus on being number one for customer satisfaction.”