Vodafone partners Altice on German FTTH build

Vodafone Group and Altice are creating a joint venture to deploy fibre-to-the-home to homes in Germany. The new venture will be owned 50-50 by Vodafone Germany and Altice and will involve the construction and operation of an FTTH broadband network available to up to seven million homes over the next six years. As part of the Transaction, Vodafone is expected to receive cash proceeds from Altice of up to €1.2 billion.

FibreCo (the current name of the JV) 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. Within FibreCo’s footprint, Vodafone Germany has committed to market FibreCo’s network to new customers on an exclusive basis, whilst Vodafone Germany’s existing network will continue to service customers who do not wish to migrate to FTTH.

Nick Read

Nick Read, Vodafone group chief executive, said: “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. This significant 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.”

David Drahi, co-CEO of Altice, added: “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.”