BT lines up O2 and EE in quest for British telecoms supremacy

FRAGMENTED: Operators are starting to jockey for position as consumers increasingly favour buying fixed and mobile services as a package from a single provider, making existence as a mobile-only operator more difficult.

LONDON/MADRID: Britain's BT Group has been approached by O2 owner Telefonica and the parents of O2's bigger rival EE to discuss competing multibillion-pound deals to create a powerhouse in fixed-line broadband, mobile and TV. 

The former monopoly's long-mooted expansion into mobile expected next year appears to be acting as a catalyst to consolidation in Britain, where the market is split between four mobile networks and four major broadband providers.