Vodafone and TPG Get $1bn Closer

Vodafone and TPG have agreed on a $1bn+ deal to work on improving the backhaul of Vodafone’s network, with TPG building extra infrastructure to enable Vodafone the use of new and existing dark fibre around Australia. In return TPG will be a Vodafone MVNO instead of Optus.

Benoit Hanssen, Vodafone Australia’s chief technology officer said the deal would allow the mobile telco to “flatline” its transmission costs. “The way the market currently works when it comes to transmission agreements that we lease from third parties, it’s a volume based approach, so the more you transmit, the more you pay,” he said. “What we are able to do with dark fibre is TPG will then provide the physical glass, we will ourselves, light up that fibre with our own equipment — that actually decouples the relationship of more data for more cost. “Fibre, in terms of capability, is nearly unlimited.”

Coverage isn’t as important as bandwidth in the smartphone era. No point have a strong signal yet there’s bugger all bandwidth and I can’t get a sneaky tweet out. Vodafone’s backhaul has been pretty good in my experience so it’s nice to see they’re not letting their standards drop. If TPG can bundle fixed line Internet and a BYO phone SIM only plan, it would be tempting to move over to TPG.

Source: Billion-dollar deal sees TPG mobile customers move to Vodafone | ZDNet