Vodafone UK is preparing to launch broadband services, followed by TV service, for which the company has ambitious plans and plans to invest GBP 1 billion in its network this year, CEO Jeroen Hoencamp told the Financial Times. The operator will use the fixed network it bought with Cable & Wireless in 2013, but will also have to use BT Openreach’s network. Content will come from partners, with Vodafone providing the connection between TVs, phones and tablets to allow users to use the internet and watch TV from anywhere.
Hoencamp also said Vodafone will call on telecom regulator Ofcom to force BT and EE to give up spectrum and to improve access and costs on BT’s broadband network, as a competition remedy for BT’s acquisition of EE, which creates a dominant player in consumer and enterprise. After the takeover, BT will control 45 percent of UK spectrum, according to Vodafone. The company will also fight to protect its network-sharing deal with O2 UK, which could be expanded to include O2’s buyer, 3 UK. The latter has a separate network sharing deal with EE.
Forthcoming plans include an additional 1,000 mobile sites in London, Hoencamp said, speaking from near the top of London’s Shard building, now Europe’s highest mobile site. A person familiar with the situation said BT and EE will begin “pre-notification discussions” with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) by the end of February.
