Virgin Media, which is owned by Liberty Global, has entered into a deal reported to be worth tens of millions of pounds to buy UK-based Arqiva WiFi, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arqiva Group.
Upon the closure of the deal, Arqiva WiFi will become part of Virgin Media Business and will include more than 100 of Arqiva's employees.
The deal will give Virgin Media access to 31,000 Wi-Fi access points provided by Arqiva WiFi across 6,500 UK locations. Virgin Media will leverage these outdoor hotspots to add to its existing outdoor WiFi network.
As part of the deal with Virgin, Arqiva has signed an exclusive partnership to provide indoor solutions to Virgin Media's WiFi customers and to Virgin Media Business customers.The two businesses have also signed a long-term agreement to continue to deploy public WiFi services in Arqiva's numerous street concessions.
Peter Kelly, MD of VirginMedia Business
Millions of homes and businesses across the country already rely on Virgin Media for ultrafast broadband. By complementing our existing offer with the acquisition of one of the UK’s biggest and best public WiFi providers we’ll soon be able to expand the same high quality connectivity outdoors. In today’s digital age connectivity matters, whether you are at home, at work or on the go.
Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO of Arqiva
Arqiva’s technology is central to millions of vital connections for broadcast and telecoms in the UK and across the globe. We have made significant investment in Wifi in recent years, resulting in a scalable and robust platform for customers and I firmly believe that Virgin Media will be a great owner of the WiFi business.
