O2 Czech Republic (operating under the O2 brand) is a major integrated operator in the Czech Republic. It is now operating more than six million lines, both fixed and mobile, making it one of the Czech Republic's largest providers of fully converged services. O2 Czech Republic operates a fixed and mobile network including a 3rd generation network, CDMA (for data), UMTS and EDGE, enabling voice, data and video transmission. O2 Czech Republic is also a provider of ICT services.
Previously two companies, fixed-line operator Český Telecom and mobile operator Eurotel, it was acquired by the Spanish company Telefónica in 2005 and merged into a single legal entity and given its present name on 1 July 2006.
In 2013, it was announced that Telefónica would sell its stake in the company to PPF and the company would continue to use the O2 brand for a maximum of four years.[2] In August 2017 the brand license agreement was extended to 2022, with a 5 year extension to 2027 available.[3]
History
The company was initially known as SPT Telecom (Správa pošt a telekomunikací, state-owned telecommunications company), and used to have a monopoly for providing fixed-line services.