BT Group has confirmed it is in exclusive negotiations to acquire EE, the Deutsche Telekom and Orange mobile business, which would take it back into the mobile telephony business.
BT is willing to pay £12.5 billion to take to complete the package of fibre broadband, Wi-Fi and TV with EE’s 4G network.
The period of exclusivity is expected to last several weeks.
It had previously emerged that BT was in talks with Telefonica to purchase the O2 market, suggesting there is more to play for in the UK telecoms sector. Analysts value O2 at around £9 billion. BT sold its Cellnet, later O2, business to Telefonica in 2005 for £18 billion.
With 24.5 million direct mobile customers, EE is currently the UK’s largest mobile provider.
In a twist to the tale EE is also the MVNO provider to BT rival Virgin Media’s own mobile telephony service.