Liberty Global, a private equity firm, Telefónica, a Spanish multinational telecommunications company, and InfraVia Capital Partners, a private equity firm, agreed to form a $4.5bn joint venture, to build a new fibre network in the UK covering up to 7m homes. “This landmark agreement with Liberty Global, Telefonica and InfraVia will expand our FTTH footprint to millions of new UK homes, creating the undisputed second national fibre network in the UK. VMO2 has already committed to upgrading its entire existing 16 million footprint to FTTH. This JV will take our aggregate FTTH footprint to up to 23 million homes, reaching around 80% of the UK. VMO2 will bring significant build expertise, and will benefit from a meaningful off-net growth opportunity and as the anchor client will support attractive returns for the JV – a winning combination. Finally, we are very excited to be working with InfraVia who we already partner with in Germany, and welcome the expertise they bring to the JV,” Mike Fries, Liberty Global CEO and Vice Chairman.