New agreements with CityFibre and Openreach enable Vodafone to accelerate FTTP roll outs in the UK, increase wholesale infrastructure competition and strengthen its capacity to compete in the retail market with improved commercial terms, according to CEO Nick Jeffery.
The revised terms of Vodafone's agreement with CityFibre see it retain exclusivity on a rolling 12 month basis for the first phase of CityFibre’s FTTP rollout covering one million homes.
Previously, the period of exclusivity was dependent on the total time taken to roll out the network in each city.
In addition, Vodafone is backing a new trial in Salisbury in which Openreach will replace every copper-based telephone line within the catchment area with optical fibre cables.
Starting in the spring, Vodafone will migrate its customers in the area to Vodafone Gigafast Broadband without charging an upfront connection fee.
This project builds on Vodafone’s agreement with Openreach last month to bring fibre to 0.5 million households in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool, in addition to the 12 towns and cities already under construction with CityFibre.
Jeffery said: “By offering our partners a ready market in the form of Vodafone Gigafast Broadband, we played an instrumental role in encouraging Openreach’s new wholesale service to build in additional places, and now we are enabling CityFibre to expand.
"The only way the UK will achieve its digital ambition is through strong partnerships."