Wow. That's a cat thrown amongst the pigeons.
OTOH the rules are rules
...
Will be interesting to see which way OFCOM lean on this
We know Ofcom want to get full-fibre by adding more competition ... and getting Vodafone into the
fixed line physical infrastructure market must surely count as added competition from one of the obvious sources in the UK.
But Ofcom really envisaged this happening by someone coming in and renting via PIA. Not by hiring Openreach to do the work. However, I suspect Vodafone are big enough to make Ofcom at least pause for thought over their strategy.
I agree that it will be interesting to see which way Ofcom go.
Really interesting.
In fact, the Vodafone approach could be perceived as better in the long term ... it is a network that starts out with exclusive use (just like someone renting PIA, or VM installing more physical cable), but eventually falls back to something regulated by VULA. It acts as stimulus to get new cables in the ground, but eventually allows little players into the game.
That looks to me like having your cake, and eating it for desert too. For Ofcom, anyway.
Really interesting.
(Edit: emphasise Vodafone's involvement in laying down physical infrastructure, rather than just in a nebulous "fixed line" market that could be WLR)
Aside on Vodafone's motivations...
I wonder if Vodafone might be more concerned about ensuring fibre backhaul for their masts, especially with 5G coming up. The period of exclusivity might be to ensure that their investment is not of benefit to the other mobile operators.