LONDON--Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) Wednesday launched consumer
Internet broadband and fixed telephony services in the U.K., as the
race hots up for telecommunications operators in the country to
offer a full range of media services.
The Newbury, England-based company said it is investing
"significantly" in the project, which includes a high-speed
fiber-optic network, but declined to provide figures.
The service--called Vodafone Connect--will initially be offered
to existing customers in Manchester, Berkshire and parts of
Hampshire and Surrey followed by Essex, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire
in the next few weeks. It will then be rolled out to the rest of
the company's U.K. customer base later in the summer.
It expects to launch broadband to new customers later in the
year.
"This launch builds on the success of Vodafone's fixed broadband
services across 12 countries in Europe, where we are one of the
largest providers with more than 11 million subscribers and our
experience as the leader in unified communications to the U.K.
business sector," Vodafone said.
"This is a really exciting move for Vodafone in the UK as we
move our business into a new phase. We're looking forward to
bringing our consumer customers the benefits of our experience in
providing fixed and mobile services, both here in the UK and
elsewhere around the world," said Jeroen Hoencamp, Chief Executive
of Vodafone in the U.K..
In the U.K., rival Virgin Media, owned by Liberty Global PLC
(LBTYA), already offers fixed telephony, mobile, broadband and
pay-television. Fixed telephony giant BT Group PLC (BT.A.LN) has
also agreed to buy mobile operator EE, which would catapult the
company back into consumer mobile for the first time in more than a
decade.
At 0846 GMT, Vodafone shares were up 0.1% at 242 pence, valuing
the company at GBP64.1 billion ($94.7 billion).
--Write to Simon Zekaria at simon.zekaria@wsj.com
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