Vodafone has opened the door to the potential of adding a third partner for its broadband business as it looks to grow that part of its operations.
Vodafone, which already has deals in place with CityFibre and Openreach, and is seeking a third to support its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) rollout.
Vishal Dixit, director of strategy and wholesale at the operator, confirmed this information to Mobile News, with plans to onboard a new partner in the next 18 months.
Dixit says a new partner will help add diversity to its broadband offering, which serves around a million customers in the UK since launching in 2017.
“We are open to a third fibre partner in addition to CityFibre and Openreach,” said Dixit. “We’re open to possibly more, but given the complexity of onboarding a fibre provider, it’s likely that it will be just one more in the next 12 to 18 months. “A third would be good
because it adds greater diversity and offers more than a reliance on just two partners. It also helps us close some of the gaps we have in our footprint today. What I mean by that is there’s two particular areas of FTTP coverage where we’ve got strong partners, but these aren’t quite giving us the coverage at the rate and speed that maybe other alternatives do.”
Dixit adds that Vodafone has identified improving rollout across London and rural areas in the next year as a focus, and convergence is also a priority.
“Broadband is a critical priority for Vodafone and makes up an important part of our convergence strategy.
“As we see the market evolve, convergence in the consumer market becomes a critical trend. We launched our broadband business in 2017 and this is the fastest-growing business within all of Vodafone UK.
