Vodafone to expand full fibre to 15 cities in Openreach deal

Vodafone is set to expand its Gigafast Broadband across the UK after securing a major deal with Openreach to use its fibre-to-the-premises network (FTTP).

The deal is tied to the expansion of Openreach's infrastructure and includes an option for further coverage later on.

The rollout will begin in Spring 2020 with the Gigafast Broadband service being made available to half a million premises in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool.

Openreach's full-fibre network already covers more than 1.9 million premises in the UK, according to the company, with its engineers building it to another home or business every 26 seconds.

This is the latest in a string of victories for Vodafone, having recently secured a five-year deal with Virgin Media which saw more than three million of its customers switch over to Vodafone from BT.

Openreach chief executive Clive Sulley said the company was "keen to upgrade customers as quickly as possible to this new, ultrafast, future-proof platform".

"We're proud that Vodafone's placing its confidence in Openreach to deliver a great broadband experience for their customers," he said. "We're determined to be the partner of choice for all communications providers and we'll do that by offering the best connectivity and service with the widest possible coverage throughout the country."

Vodafone's Gigafast Broadband is currently live, or planned, in 15 towns or cities, according to the company. It previously announced 12 other fibre rollouts under a complimentary agreement with infrastructure provider CityFibre.

"Vodafone is committed to a full-fibre future and to creating the infrastructure Britain needs to compete and win in the digital era," he said.

"This initiative with Openreach builds on out existing commitments with CityFibre and underlines our belief in the power of digital technology to connect people for a better future and unlock economic growth."