Liberty Global is planning to expand its new build program following in the footsteps of Virgin Media’s Project Lightning.
Speaking during a Liberty Global analyst call, Virgin CEO Tom Mockridge said build was ramping up.
“We’ve got a target of 500,000 premises this year and to indicate our momentum we’ve got over 300,000 premises in the build programme at this moment, this time last year that number was 30,000,” said Mockridge. “So we’ve definitely got the momentum, but we’ve got to deliver that 500,000 this year and then lift that to 1 million next year.”
Mockridge said the new build was getting the penetration levels that were needed and ARPU was rising as a result.
Liberty is now looking towards continental Europe to further increase its footprint.
“Across the markets where we are expected and planning to build, we’re going to ramp every quarter,” said Liberty Global president Mike Fries. “We’re targeting 7 million homes, and budgeting 2.5 million this year. You can expect that every six months there’s going to be a bigger than in the prior six months.”
Separately, Fries told analysts not to assume any changes in its UK mobile situation. His comments came in the light of suggestions that the European Commission may prevent the proposed merger between O2 and 3.
Fries said the current MVNO contract [with the BT-owned EE] ran until 2018 and that there were already plans to launch 4G in the UK.
Liberty is already offering 4G in four markets and intends to launch in another four before the end of the year.
