THE OWNERS of Virgin Media and O2 have agreed to merge the two to create Britain's biggest phone and internet operator in a significant £31 billion deal.

O2 is the UK's largest phone company with about 34 million users and the merger announced today represents a major rival to BT.

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In addition, Virgin has about six million broadband and cable TV customers and another three million mobile users.

As well as having its own subscribers, O2 provides the network for Tesco Mobile, Giffgaff and Sky Mobile.