Yahoo Finance Virgin Media O2 puts former Cellnet boss on the board
The newly merged Virgin Media O2 has recruited a former BT executive as it prepares the ground for an aggressive challenge to Britain's biggest telecoms company.
Virgin Media O2 has handed a board seat to Peter Erskine, the telecoms veteran who led BT's early mobile network Cellnet that was later rebranded as O2.
He stepped down as chairman and and chief executive of O2 in January 2008, two years after overseeing the £17.7bn sale of the mobile operator to Spain's Telefonica.
The appointment comes as VirginMedia O2 attempts to win mobile and broadband customers away from BT after sealing the UK's largest telecoms deal.
The £31bn merger between the cable network and the mobile operator creates a giant with £11bn in revenue and 47m customers.
The company, jointly owned by Telefonica and Liberty Global, plans to invest £10bn over the next five years to support the Government's drive to roll out superfast broadband to 85pc of the UK by 2025.
Mr Erskine, 69, is a former chairman of the betting firm Ladbrokes and has been on Telefonica's board since 2006.
He pocketed nearly £21m following his departure from O2.
Mr Erskine will be a non-executive on the Virgin Media O2 board, which is led by a rotating chairman.
Mike Fries, the Liberty Global chief executive, will be the first chairman before handing over to Telefonica's Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete.
Other board hires include Liberty Global's Charlie Bracken, Enrique Rodriguez, Andrea Salvato and Telefonica's Angel Vila Boix and Laura Abasolo Garcia de Baquendano.
Virgin Media's Lutz Schuler was made chief executive of the combined company earlier this year, seeing off competition from O2 boss Mark Evans.
Mr Schuler wants to bring 1 gigabit speeds to 16m homes by the end of this year - the equivalent to two thirds of Boris Johnson's pledge.
Virgin Media O2 also plans to offer wholesale access to rivals, while opening the door for outside investors to help fund future expansions to the network.
Mr Schuler said earlier this month that the company was "fired up and fighting fit" to challenge BT and its mobile division EE.
However, he has refused to rule out becoming a co-investor in BT's plan to upgrade an extra 5m homes and businesses to full-fibre broadband.
BT is preparing to step up plans to upgrade copper phone networks to faster full-fibre broadband from 20m to 25m premises by the end of 2026.
