By Joe Hoppe

Vodafone Group PLC said Monday that it will create a joint venture with Altice to construct and operate a "fiber-to-the-home" broadband network for up to seven million homes in Germany.

The U.K. telecommunications company said the project with Altice is expected to last around six years and is complementary to its current upgrade plans for its existing hybrid fiber cable network, providing a pathway for speeds of up to 10 gigabytes per second.

The venture will be called FibreCo, and will be 50%-owned by each party. Around 80% of the rollout will be focused around large housing associations in Vodafone's existing hybrid fiber cable network, and the remaining 20% will focus on neighboring homes.

As part of the transaction, Vodafone expects cash proceeds from Altice of up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.17 billion), including an upfront payment of EUR120 million at closing, additional deferred payments and an earn-out of up to EUR595 million dependent on FibreCo's performance. Over the rollout, FibreCo intends to invest up to EUR7 billion.

The creation of FibreCo is expected to complete in the first half of 2023. It will offer wholesale access to all telecommunications service providers in Germany, to exploit the full potential of the fiber network.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 17, 2022 02:43 ET (06:43 GMT)

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