BT says it will move towards improving its ADSL networks to speeds of up to 24 Mbps for two thirds of Irish broadband lines by upgrading 58 telephone exchanges, in addition to the 22 it’s already revamped—thus allowing Vodafone to introduce “a wide range of innovative converged services”. Vodafone Ireland already has about 83,000 fixed and mobile subscribers, due to sales of 3G dongles and its 2007 acquisition of Irish fixed line provider Perlico for an estimated €80 million (via Mobileeurope.co.uk)— it is receiving an extra 84,000 residential and 3,000 business accounts from BT. Vodafone is busy upgrading its fixed line network in Germany, where it gained a 14 percent market share after buying the Arcor ISP for €474 million (£409.4 million; $672.8 million) in May last year.

SEE ALSO: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone Expand German High-Speed Broadband Network

BT Ireland’s CEO Chris Clark calls it “a very positive chapter in Ireland’s telecoms history” while Vodafone Ireland CEO Charles Butterworth, CEO promised to “launch an exciting and innovative roadmap of fixed products and services that are strongly differentiated from those available in the market today.” No word on what the suite of products will be, but with speeds of up to 24Mbps the road is wide open for Vodafone to launch its own IPTV service, for example.

This is the latest deal in a long relationship between the two companies: Vodafone provides the out-of-home mobile coverage for its BT Total Broadband Anywhere service—formerly BT Fusion—through which customers use their home wifi network or BT hotspots to make mobile calls and switch to Voda’s network when they step outside.