Vodafone and Altice partner on €7bn German fibre rollout
Vodafone Group has partnered with Altice to create a joint venture fibre company in Germany.
Named FiberCo, the new broadband company will be jointly owned by Vodafone and Altice, and aims to construct and operate a FTTH network to 7 million homes in six years. The companies have plans to invest a combined €7bn on a rollout across the country.
Vodafone already currently offers up to 1Gbps connections to over 24 million homes. This partnership with Altice is complementary to Vodafone’s upgrade plans for its existing hybrid fibre cable network.
Nick Read, Vodafone Group Chief Executive, commented: “This partnership builds on Vodafone’s significant next generation network with Altice’s industrial expertise and proven Fibre-to-the-Home construction capabilities enabling us to bring gigabit connectivity to even more customers in Germany. We are proud of our long-standing relationships with housing associations and pleased as a trusted provider to bring more connectivity options for tenants. This significant infrastructure investment supports the country’s social, economic and digital development and the broadband ambitions of the German government as part of Europe’s Digital Decade targets.”
Building out Germany’s full fibre networks
FibreCo will offer wholesale access to all telecommunications service providers in Germany, exploiting the full potential of the fibre network. Vodafone Germany will act as the anchor tenant, entering into an agreement with the FibreCo upon closing of the Transaction.
As part of its plan, 80% of the deployment will be focused on housing associations, tapping into Vodafone’s existing fibre cable network footprint, which are looking to upgrade. The remaining 20% of its push will be outside of the operator’s current footprint.
The operators have already contracted engineering and construction company Geodesia, a subsidiary of Altice, to carry out the majority of the network build and maintenance.
David Drahi, co-CEO of Altice, commented: “We are delighted and honoured to join forces with Vodafone to build and operate a FTTH network connecting up to 7 million premises in Germany. Altice’s existing presence in Germany through Geodesia, its unique track record in operating over 45 million homes with the latest very-high speed fibre networks across Europe and the US, together with Vodafone’s competitive position as anchor tenant will help us establish one of the largest FTTH ventures in Europe. We have pioneered fibre joint ventures in France and Portugal, and are thus thrilled to be able to replicate such a feat in Germany with such a partner.”
