After months of negotiation behind the scenes, British Telecom (BT) has announced that they are acquiring EE for just over $19b US. The acquisition takes the UK's leading mobile provider in EE under the BT umbrella, bringing the telecom giant back into the mobile operator space within the country. The announcement was posted on the British Telecom site and impacts some 31 million EE customers.
In the post, BT states "By combining the UK's most advanced 4G network and most extensive superfast broadband network, BT will have greater scope for future investment and product innovation ". Ultimately this could work out well for consumers as they will be able to combine BT services with their mobile needs under one billing. This is similar to what AT&T offers as well as Verizon here in the United States.
You can read the full announcement here on the BT website which includes all of the financial details as well as quotes from executives on the matter.
How this ultimately impacts Microsoft and Windows Tablets and Windows Phone carried by EE is still an unknown. Having just returned from the UK on a two year EXPAT assignment, I can say that if you walked into any EE shop on the High Street you would be able to find multiple Windows Phone models available and they always seemed to get the newest devices sooner than Vodafone, 3 or other carriers. Hopefully that trend continues under BT.