nexfibre says Datta, who has started his role, has over 25 years’ experience in the digital infrastructure and fixed telecoms sectors - and has vast experience building and managing large fibre-based networks and services across the US, Europe and Asia, including at Colt Technologies and AboveNet Communications (now Zayo).

“Backed by Infravia Capital Partners, Telefónica and Liberty Global, nexfibre is well-capitalised and well-positioned to become a long-term, sustainable national scale platform in partnership with Virgin Media O2,” nexfibre notes.

Datta replaces Bernardo Quinn, who was appointed as interim CEO of nexfibre at the start of this year. Quinn will remain as an advisor to the board for the remainder of the year.

Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre, said:

“With a fully-financed plan to invest £4.5 billion and a set of world-class shareholders and partners, nexfibre is incredibly well-positioned to be impactful a at a pivotal time in the UK broadband market.

I look forward to working with the team, our shareholders and our partners to execute on our strategy of delivering high-quality broadband capability that provides long-term, sustainable competition, and has a lasting impact on communities across the UK.”

Andrea Salvato, Chairman of nexfibre, said:

“The Board and I are delighted that Rajiv is joining the nexfibre team, and we look forward to working with him and our partners at Virgin Media O2 to create a national scale challenger, boosting wholesale competition, driving consumer choice and providing significant value to the UK economy.

We would like to thank Bernardo Quinn for his commitment and contribution. He has been instrumental in creating the nexfibre organisation, and setting the impressive pace of the programme to date.”

nexfibre is a joint venture between InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global and Telefónica and is financed with £4.5 billion of equity and debt investment and the company says it will initially roll out fibre to 5 million homes not currently served by Virgin Media O2’s network by 2026, with the opportunity to expand to an additional 2 million homes. 

nexfibre and Virgin Media O2 say they intend to wholesale their networks to other third-party internet service providers creating the UK’s "first national-scale challenger to BT Openreach, boosting choice and competition in the market".