O2 (brand)

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O2

Product type	Telecommunication
Owner	Telefónica
Country	United Kingdom
Introduced	2001; 23 years ago (2001)
Related brands	Movistar Vivo
Markets	Czech Republic Germany Slovakia Spain United Kingdom
Website	telefonica.com

O2 (typeset as O₂) is a global brand name owned by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica. The company uses the O2 brand for its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Germany. Since 2018, it is also used as an online-only flanker brand in Spain.^[1]

Formerly, all European branches of Telefónica were managed by Telefónica Europe plc, a broadband and telecommunications company. The company originated as a collection of worldwide telecommunications companies, known in the later half of the 1990s as BT Wireless, and a global mobile data business known then as Genie Internet, both subsidiaries of British Telecommunications (British Telecom or BT). As part of a reorganisation of Telefónica in 2014, Telefónica Europe's holdings and operations became direct subsidiaries of its parent: Telefónica S.A.^[2]

Telefónica Europe provided mobile telephony operations in the United Kingdom and Germany, and licensed its brand to former operations in the Republic of Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. O2 has additionally established a joint venture with Tesco Mobile in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and in Slovakia, and the Tchibo Mobilfunk network in Germany.