As new figures show 33 million Britons log onto the internet daily, Sky agrees to buy Telefonica’s O2 home telephony services.

Sky is to become the UK’s second-largest broadband provider after agreeing a deal to buy rival O2’s half a million customer accounts.

The satellite broadcaster, which is the parent company of Sky News, will pay O2 owner Telefonica £180m for the O2 and BE consumer broadband and home phone businesses.

The deal is due to complete by the end of April, subject to regulatory approval.

Approximately 3.6 million Sky customers will take the services: TV, broadband and home telephony.

The company said the acquisition will provide advantages of scale for its home communications business.

Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: “From a standing start in 2006, we have added more than 4.2 million broadband customers.”

“The acquisition of Telefonica’s UK consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business will help us accelerate this growth.”

The company said O2 and BE’s broadband customers will be switched to its all-fibre network and that it might also pay up to £20m to Telefonica UK for the successful completion of the migration process.

Mobile phone business O2, which has more than 23 million customers in the UK, and is expected to concentrate on 4G services.

Telefonica UK chief executive Ronan Dunne added: “We believe this agreement is the best way of helping our customers get the highest quality home broadband experience from a leading organisation in the market.”

The news comes as official figures show that some 33 million adults in Britain logged on daily to the internet in 2012.

The Office for National Statistics said the number has more than doubled since 2006, when 16 million Britons used daily web services.