Telefónica Europe plc is a European broadband and telecommunications company that trades as O2 . 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. Telefónica Europe provides both fixed and mobile telephony operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. O2 has additionally established a joint venture with Tesco Mobile in the United Kingdom, Ireland,... Hungary and in Slovakia, and the Tchibo Mobilfunk network in Germany. Originally launched in January 1985 , Cellnet was launched as a subsidiary of Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio Limited, a 60:40 venture between British Telecommunications and Securicor respectively. In 1999 , BT purchased Securicor's shares in Cellnet for £3.15 billion, Securicor originally invested £4 million in Cellnet in 1983 , the company was later rebranded as BT Cellnet, and it became a part of BT Wireless, a group of subsidiary companies owned by BT.
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