Vodafone and Openreach Moot Joint UK FTTP Ultrafast Broadband Investment

Last year “industry sources” indicated that Vodafone could be planning to build their own “full fibre” network in the United Kingdom (here). A new report claims that they are now in “early but serious” talks with Openreach (BT) about the prospect of a joint investment on a “large-scale” FTTP/H build.

Vodafone has only recently re-entered the country’s residential fixed line broadband market, after being absent for several years, and so far they’ve done a good job of generating growth by offering some very affordable bundles. The only low point has been their inability to launch a Pay TV (IPTV) product (no quad-play).

Nevertheless it’s been clear for awhile, not least via the operator’s initial but failed discussions of an asset swap with Virgin Media (Liberty Global), that they’d like to go a lot further and perhaps even replicate their FTTP roll-out in Spain. The desire to take on BT is palpable but it’s a tough ask for a side of the market where they’re currently still a minnow (245,000 broadband subscribers) among giants.

Despite this the Mobile dominated operator is known to have been eyeing up Openreach’s new consultation with interest. The latter recently proposed an aspiration to conduct a “large scale” roll-out of 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP/H) broadband technology, which with the right support could reach up to 10 million UK premises by around 2025 (here); the cost of this has been pegged between £3bn to £6bn (here).

Currently Openreach only plan to reach 2 million premises with FTTP by 2020 and they claim that to go further would require greater industry collaboration (i.e. new investment, risk and cost sharing models), as well as improved planning and traffic management processes, a friendlier regulatory environment to help protect the investment and an agreement on how mass migration of customers onto the new platform can be achieved.

According to the Telegraph‘s “industry sources“, Vodafone are taking the consultation very seriously and appear willing to put some money where their mouth is. The mobile giant is however only keen to target major urban areas, which is hardly a surprise because that’s where most customers’ exist and thus the greatest potential for a return on any investment.

However current market regulation could still prove to be a difficult hurdle because Vodafone may well demand some degree of exclusivity over any jointly built infrastructure (e.g. initial sole use of the infrastructure and first access to the fastest speeds etc.), which would obviously upset rival ISPs in a market where Openreach is required to provide fair and equal access. Ofcom could be flexible but only up to a point.

An Openreach Spokesperson said:

“We have said before that a new, more independent Openreach is open to co-investment models.

We’re currently consulting with all of our wholesale customers on the case for a large-scale ‘full-fibre’ broadband network. As part of this we’re asking about their potential interest in different forms of commitment to new fibre-to-the-premises infrastructure, including co-investment.

We are optimistic that this approach will lead to greater openness and collaboration across our industry, which will in turn achieve better outcomes for connected homes, businesses and people throughout Britain.”

In order to make this viable Vodafone would probably still need to build some scale into their broadband business and that might still require them to gobble an existing ISP. Assuming the prospect of a deal with Virgin Media has been shelved (a natural result of going down the Openreach route) then that only really leaves Sky Broadband and TalkTalk as significant options, both of which piggyback off Openreach’s network.

TalkTalk is financially strained and potentially vulnerable to a purchase. Plus, if the rumours are true, then Sky may also be open to divesting broadband once Fox completes its takeover, although we think that Fox would risk shooting themselves in the foot if they did that (broadcast media is rapidly becoming more broadband centric).

On the other hand this could all be part of a tactic so that Vodafone can better understand their options before making a final decision on the Openreach or Virgin Media route. We’re all for more FTTP/H but there’s certainly some concern that the market’s diversity could be harmed if fair wholesale access isn’t provided to ISPs, particularly smaller providers. A tough balancing act indeed.