Sky would be in talks to invest in and become the customer of a comprehensive fiber company backed by Virgin Media's parent company Liberty Global.
According to FT, the European cable giant last week registered a company called "Liberty Fiber Ltd" and wants to build a fiber optic to subscriber (FTTP) network that serves millions of locations outside of Virgin Media's current footprint.
The joint venture would seek to expand to all parts of the UK, using BT Openreach's network of conduits and poles.
Virgin Media's existing cable network has traditionally been limited to urban areas, and while the € 3 billion Lightning project will expand its footprint to 17 million properties, its expansion has been largely concentrated in areas already served by Openreach.
Virgin Media would be the primary tenant, but the addition of Sky would strengthen the company's goal of becoming a major Openreach competitor in the wholesale sector.
Sky would be in separate talks to become a customer of Virgin Media's cable network. Earlier this year, it was reported that Virgin was seriously considering opening up its cable network to competitors, fearing that FTTP investments from other providers would erode its speed advantage.
The company was supposed to ask if it made more sense to switch to wholesaling, a market with lower margins but also an opportunity to increase market share.
Britain has lagged other parts of the world in fiber-to-the-site (FTTP) deployment, but the government now wants "full fiber" as the default connection technology and has promised new regulations and investments to support this ambition.
Openreach is embarking on a major FTTP build with the ambition to reach 15 million local people by the middle of the next decade. At the same time, other providers such as TalkTalk, CityFibre, Gigaclear and Hyperoptic are also investing in infrastructure.
TalkTalk's FibreNation is also attracting investors' attention, according to The Telegraph. The company is seeking € 1 billion to build a network of nearly three billion homes and businesses in urban areas.
CityFibre, Vodafone's partner in another FTTP company, investment firm iCon, and Macquarie, winner of the battle to acquire KCOM, are among those interested.
Via FT / Telegraph