A YORK mobile phone business has won a newly created award from O2 to recognise its work during the Olympic Games.

Cellhire, which worked with O2 Rentals division to provide solutions for more than 22,500 business customers throughout the Olympic and Paralympic events, won an Innovation Award from O2.

O2 presented the award to Cellhire for its outstanding contribution to O2’s Olympic Strategy and the collaborative way that Cellhire worked with their organisation and customers in the UK, Spain and throughout the world, it said.

It is the first time an award of this nature has been presented by O2 to one of its partners.

David Plumb, general manager for enterprise at Telefónica O2 UK, said: “Working in collaboration with our partners is a key strategy within the O2 business channel. There is no better example of this than the outstanding way that Cellhire worked with Telefónica O2 over the summer. The feedback directly from customers showed that Cellhire remain the world leaders in the mobile rental market with outstanding customer service.”

Matt Bennett, Cellhire’s UK managing director said: “The Olympics has dominated a large part of 2012 and while we are very pleased with the business outcome, as were our customers, it was a real privilege to be recognised by our network partner with an award for Innovation, the first award of its kind in O2’s history.”

Cellhire, based at Clifton Park, partnered with regional communications company Mobile Tornado, based in Harrogate, to offer a system that provides an alternative to walkie-talkies, using mobile frequencies rather than the limited walkie-talkie frequencies.

It also worked in collaboration with the O2 team and used the O2 network, to create a range of voice and data tariffs for clients, which included Olympic and Paralympic teams from all over the world, media organisations and sponsors.