Summary

• Vodafone Greece and PPC Group have entered heads of terms for a possible 50:50 fibre joint venture.
• The proposed JV would combine FTTH and wholesale fibre businesses covering more than 1.6 million homes.
• Greece shows how telecoms and utility groups are using shared infrastructure models to manage fibre investment.

Vodafone Greece and PPC Group are exploring a 50:50 fibre joint venture in Greece, in a proposed deal that would combine their fibre-to-the-home networks and wholesale fibre businesses.

The companies have entered into heads of terms for the potential joint venture, which would cover more than 1.6 million homes on a combined basis. The planned business would provide wholesale open access to internet service providers in Greece, subject to due diligence, binding transaction documents, customary conditions, and regulatory approvals.

Vodafone has said there is no certainty that a transaction will be agreed. That caution is warranted, because fibre joint ventures can carry attractive infrastructure logic while still requiring agreement on valuation, governance, access terms, competition treatment, operational integration, and future capital commitments.

The proposed deal brings together a telecoms operator and an integrated utility group. PPC is active across electricity generation, distribution, supply, and energy services in Southeastern Europe. Vodafone brings telecoms infrastructure, wholesale network experience, and a broader European connectivity footprint.

That pairing reflects a wider shift in European fibre markets. Full-fibre rollout is capital-intensive, and returns depend on take-up, wholesale demand, construction efficiency, and regulatory stability. Telecoms companies have increasingly looked for infrastructure partnerships, carve-outs, tower-style structures, and shared-build models to reduce balance-sheet pressure while continuing network deployment.

Utilities can be useful partners because they already own infrastructure, understand rights of way, operate field workforces, and sit inside local energy and planning systems. Their involvement also reflects the convergence of digital and energy infrastructure. Fibre networks support business connectivity, smart grids, industrial sites, public services, and cloud access, while utilities are also becoming digital-platform operators in their own right.

The Greek market has its own dynamics. Fibre coverage and take-up are critical to digital competitiveness, particularly for cloud services, public administration, business software, remote work, and tourism-related services. A wholesale open-access model could allow multiple internet service providers to use the same infrastructure rather than duplicating civil works in areas where the economics are already challenging.

Regulators will still need to examine whether the structure improves investment and access without weakening competition. Open access only works if commercial terms, operational processes, and governance allow meaningful use by rival providers. The ownership structure will also need to avoid incentives that favour the shareholders’ retail arms over other wholesale customers.

The transaction sits within a broader European pattern in which digital infrastructure is being separated, shared, and financed through models that look less like traditional telecoms competition and more like long-life infrastructure investment. That can accelerate deployment, but it also shifts market power into wholesale platforms that need strong oversight.

If agreed, the Vodafone-PPC joint venture would be more than a Greek broadband transaction. It would be another example of how Europe’s connectivity build-out is being shaped by capital discipline, utility convergence, and the search for investment models that can carry fibre deeper into national economies.