Liberty Global expands relationship with Plume

Liberty Global has announced an expanded relationship with smart home vendor Plume.

The operator said that it will roll out smart home services from Plume across its footprint this year, following a successful initial deployment with its UK brand Virgin Media.

The vendor had also previously announced distribution deals with VOO, Sunrise, WightFibre and TalkTalk.

In this new deal, all Liberty Global customers in the UK, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands will have the ability to use Plume’s Connect app which allows them to closely monitor internet usage and pause use on specific devices.

The deal will also see Liberty Global start rolling out Plume’s WiFi Pods, which had previously been trialled by Virgin Media in the UK. The Pods create a mesh WiFi network and utilises AI to optimise and tailor broadband connections according to the customer and their individual habits.

Enrique Rodriguez, chief technology officer at Liberty Global, said: “Combining Plume with Liberty Global’s gigabit network capabilities releases the full potential of broadband speeds and spreads them throughout the home, adapting to the unique environment each connection operates in.

“The expanded partnership with Plume builds on our commitment to creating the next-generation of broadband by working with partners to enhance our network capability and go beyond speed-leadership. This strongly positions Liberty Global to offer a highly reliable internet residential service in the home that enables smart homes, online gaming and a wide variety of use cases which rely on wireless connectivity.”

Fahri Diner, CEO and co-founder at Plume, said: “We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Liberty Global beyond intelligent WiFi by introducing Plume’s Smart Home Services across Liberty Global’s total footprint. Coupled with OpenSync, this initiative will give Liberty Global unprecedented flexibility, time to market advantage, sophisticated back office tools, intelligence, and deep insight to deliver their customers the best experience possible.”

This announcement came alongside a similar extension to Liberty Global’s distribution partnership with Netflix.

The parties have announced a multi-year deal that will see over 11 million customers have access to the streamer.