Vodafone is expanding its fibre footprint in Europe, as well as extending its roaming agreement with Swisscom.
In Ireland, Vodafone has begun rolling out its gigabit FTTH service under SIRO, a joint venture between the operator and regional electricity provider ESB.
The €450 million project sees Vodafone and ESB roll out a pure fibre network capable of speeds of up to one gigabit per second. The JV aims to reach 500,000 premises in Ireland by the end of 2018.
Carrigaline in Country Cork will the first of 51 Irish towns to be connected to the new network.
Meanwhile in Portugal, Vodafone said it will funnel a €125 million investment into the expansion of its fibre network in the country.
The operator said it had already connected 2.2 million Portuguese homes and business to fibre networks and now aims to connect 2.75 million premises to 1GBps broadband services by the end of 2016.
Markus Reinisch, Vodafone Group Public Policy Director, said: “The successful economies of the future will be gigabit societies with ultrafast fibre-optic connections available everywhere. Vodafone is playing its part in realising that objective: we have demonstrated that we invest in fibre-to-the-home when conditions allow us to do so, working together with other forward-looking companies to build the ultrafast digital infrastructure that Europe needs.”
Meanwhile, Vodafone has extended its roaming agreement with Swisscom by a further four years.
The agreement allows Vodafone’s consumer and business customers to roam on Swisscom’s network while visiting Switzerland. In return, Swisscom will continue to be able to use Vodafone's mobile, voice and data products and worldwide footprint.
The renewal takes effect at the beginning of 2016.
Christian Petit, Head of Swisscom Enterprise Customers, said: “Thanks to our partnership with Vodafone, we can offer our customers a seamless communication experience with a strong global reach.”