Virgin Media O2, jointly owned by Liberty Global and Telefonica, owns the second largest network in Britain after BT Openreach, which is used by broadband companies Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone as well as BT's consumer customers.
Virgin Media said the change would underpin its plan to upgrade all of its customers to fibre. It does not currently have rival broadband providers on its network but it said the move would create a platform for wholesale opportunities.
The mobile network will not be included in the new company.
Virgin Media O2 Chief Executive Lutz Schüler said the move was a "logical evolution" of its fibre strategy and it would reinforce its position as the leading challenger to Openreach.
"Working closely with our shareholders, this network business will provide a platform for potential altnet (alternative network) consolidation and wholesale opportunities in future, offering widescale network choice for other providers, as well as giving financing optionality," he said.
BT is investing 15 billion pounds ($18.9 billion) to expand fibre connections to 25 million premises by the end of 2026. It said this month it had reached 13 million premises, and started building to another 6 million.
Liberty Global said the change was planned for the first half of 2025, according to an investor presentation on Friday.
Liberty Global also said it would separately list its Swiss broadband and mobile company Sunrise, and it agreed the sale of its jointly-owned TV production company All3Media to Redbird IMI.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by William James)
