TELECOMS firm BT has launched a £12.5bn bid for a mobile phone company employing thousands of North-East workers.

BT has announced an exclusivity agreement with network operator EE, which it says will create an expanded organisation covering fixed-line phones, mobiles and TV.

EE is Darlington’s largest private employer with about 2,000 call centre jobs, and an announcement from BT hinted a deal could impact on back office roles.

However, bosses have not confirmed if the proposed deal will have any impact on North-East workers.

EE also has bases at Doxford, in Sunderland, and Cobalt Business Park, near Newcastle.

BT did say agreement will deliver improved fibre broadband and wifi services and give it access to the UK’s most advanced 4G network, which delivers instant internet roaming.

It said due diligence and negotiations would take a number of weeks to complete, but said it would continue providing mobile services for businesses and consumers, even if the EE deal collapses.

A BT statement added: “We expect significant similarities, mainly through network and IT rationalisation, back-office consolidation and savings on procurement, marketing and sales costs.

“In addition, we expect to generate revenues through selling fixed-line services to EE customers who don’t take a service from BT.

“However, the exclusivity agreement doesn’t require the parties to enter into a transaction and there can be no assurances one will occur.”

Earlier this year, EE, which also operates the T-Mobile and Orange brands, revealed plans to create scores of jobs in the region by bringing more than 1,000 call centre posts back to the UK.

At the time, it said it hadn’t ruled out moving the positions to the North-East, though did confirm 250 roles would go to Northern Ireland.

EE, which is understood to hold nearly 34 per cent of UK mobile market by revenue, previously put plans for an initial public offering on hold.

It has more than 27 million customers and reported operating revenues of £1.5bn for the quarter ending September 30.