O2 CZ

Company Overview

O2 CZ is a major telecommunications service provider and mobile network operating in Czechia. Founded in 1990 as Eurotel as a joint venture between SPT Telecom and Atlantic West, the company was rebranded to O₂ in 2006 following its acquisition by Telefonica in 2005. In November 2013 private investment firm PPF Group acquired a majority share in O₂ CZ

The company provides 2G GSM services over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, and launched 3G UMTS over B1 (2100 MHz) in April 2006 which it upgraded to DC-HSPA+ in April 2013. 4G LTE was launched in June 2012 over the B3 (1800 MHz) band, and adding B20 (800 MHz) in 2014 as part of its LTE-A rollout, providing 2C aggregation with peak data rates of 185 Mbps. 3C aggregation was activated in 2016 adding B7 (2600 MHz) to the LTE-A mix, and additional 1800 MHz spectrum secured in 2017 saw a further 33% increase in peak DL data rates.

December 2016 saw the successful pilot of LTE-A Pro, using 4X4 MIMO and 256 QAM to achieve 1.2 Gbps using B3, B7, B20, and B38 carriers totalling 65 MHz of bandwidth.

In December 2017 the company announced the deployment of a B38 (2600 MHz) TDD LTE-A Pro Massive MIMO network, using its 25 MHz wide carrier to provide additional capacity in high density/traffic areas. In March 2019 the company announced the introduction 4X4 MIMO, 256QAM, and 4C CA technologies on the remainder of its LTE-A Pro network, taking data rates above the gigabit mark.

O2 Czechia 5G

During the country's 2017 3.5 GHz spectrum auction, O2 secured a single contiguous 40 MHz block from 3680 to 3720 MHz - the maximum permitted by the national regulator.

O2 was reported to have conducted a soft-launch of its 5G network in April 2019, however this was determined to be a misidentification of the company announcing its LTE-A Pro network provided "fifth generation" speeds with a 1 Gbps data rate.