Mobile phone operator EE has struck a deal with Phones 4u's administrators PwC to buy 58 of the Phones 4u stores currently closed in the UK. This follows Vodafone's announcement on Friday that it is purchasing and rebranding 140 Phones 4u shops located in the country.

It is reported that the EE deal will save a further 359 jobs, bringing to total of Phones 4u employees to have been saved from redundancy by other chains or networks to around 1,860. A total of 6,000 workers were thought to have been affected originally.

EE was one of the two networks blamed by Phones 4u for the high street retailer's collapse. It followed Vodafone in withdrawing its contracts from sale by the franchise, which Phones 4u said left it with no option but to enter administration.

"The unexpected decisions by both Vodafone and EE have come as a complete shock to the business. The company is in a healthy state and both EE and Vodafone had, until very recently, consistently indicated that they saw Phones 4u as a long-term strategic partner," the retailer said in a statement at the time.

READ: Phones 4u goes into administration as final operator EE pulls out

O2 and Three had already ceased to work with Phones 4u earlier in 2014, leaving only Virgin Media, EE and Vodafone as the brand's only partners at the time.