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LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Virgin Media-O2's owners have
opened talks with investors about building a new fibre network
that could also be used by other smaller broadband providers,
putting pressure on Britain's market leader BT.
Spain's Telefonica and Liberty Global were holding
talks with pension funds and infrastructure investors to see if
they would back a new fibre network covering around 7 million
homes, a person familiar with the situation said on Monday.
BT's Openreach is Britain's leading broadband network that
is used by both its retail customers and other broadband
providers which use it on a wholesale basis, such as Comcast's
Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk.
Virgin Media-O2 runs a cable network for its broadband and
TV customers and has not previously offered wholesale access to
rivals. Under the plan, a separate entity would provide a fibre
network apart from Virgin's existing network, the source said.
The news comes at a delicate time for BT, after the
Franco-Israeli entrepreneur Patrick Drahi built an 18% stake in
the former telecoms monopoly that is developing its own
full-fibre network to 25 million homes by the end of 2026.
Investors have told Reuters that uncertainty over the
returns BT can make from its fibre network, including whether
wholesale partners Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk will bring
millions of customers to it, have weighed on the shares.
The stock was down 1% on Monday, giving BT a market value of
19 billion pounds ($25.5 billion).
The plan by Virgin Media O2's owners is separate to an
existing one to upgrade its network that serves 15.5 million
premises to full fibre by 2028.
($1 = 0.7443 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Alexander Smith)
