T-Mobile and 3 appoint BT for backhaul support

Mobile operators T-Mobile and 3 have signed a deal with BT to have 7,500 of their base stations connected up to BT’s next generation broadband network.

The deal was agreed between BT Wholesale and Mobile Broadband Network Ltd (MBNL), a joint venture between 3 and T-Mobile.

It will see BT lightening the load of the network operators by carrying data from their mobile broadband services over the newly planned fibre optic network.

MBNL said it chose BT because it offered the required capacity to support both T-Mobile and 3.

MBNL is an infrastructure sharing agreement between 3 and T-Mobile that aims to provide 98% of the UK with access to high-speed HSDPA mobile broadband by 2010 - making it the most extensive high speed network in the UK.

A spokesperson for T-Mobile said the plans to improve infrastructure are moving ahead ‘quickly and smoothly’.

He added that the new deal with BT will ensure that backhaul is not a problem as the demand for mobile data services increases.

BT now offers backhaul support to four of the UK’s five mobile operators - it already signed deals with Vodafone in April and O2 in May.

The only operator in the country that hasn’t signed up for backhaul support on BT’s next generation service is Orange.

Brian Fitzpatrick, managing director of BT Wholesale, said that by working with BT mobile companies can achieve revenue growth without making ’significant investments in infrastructure’.