The new company with approximately $4 billion in combined annual revenue and a customer base spanning more than 180 countries.

The new entity will focus exclusively on serving multinational organisations, bringing together BT International, which provides secure and resilient communication and network services globally, with Verizon’s international enterprise wireline arm. Verizon will pay BT an equalisation payment of $625 million. The transaction is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory clearances.

Martijn Blanken has been appointed CEO-designate of the new joint venture, conditional on completion. Blanken brings almost three decades of senior leadership across telecoms, technology, and digital infrastructure, including stints at Telstra, EXA Infrastructure, and KPN. He will join BT on September 1 to begin preparation for the venture’s launch.

“Bringing together this expertise and heritage with Verizon’s deep relationships with multinationals will create a stronger, scaled connectivity partner, one that has the reach, innovation and investment to succeed,” said Allison Kirkby, CEO of BT Group. Dan Schulman, CEO of Verizon, described the JV as “a cutting-edge, AI-ready and secure platform run by a single global organisation dedicated to their needs.”

The strategic logic

The deal ends what had become an open question in the industry. Speculation about BT International’s future, including rumoured approaches from Orange and AT&T, has circulated for some time, as BT has progressively divested non-UK assets and refocused on its domestic market.

Kester Mann, Director of Consumer and Connectivity at CCS Insight, points to the crown jewel at the heart of the transaction. “The jewel in the crown of BT International is its network-as-a-service platform, Global Fabric, which provides connectivity to multinational companies,” he says. “It has also been expanding its SIP-based Global Voice platform, which brings voice and collaboration into a single service.”

For BT, the JV structure allows it to retain exposure to a $4 billion revenue base while freeing management bandwidth to focus on the UK, consistent with the strategy Kirkby has pursued since taking the helm. For Verizon, it resolves the perennial challenge of serving globally footprinted enterprise customers without carrying the full cost of international infrastructure ownership.

The new joint venture will be headquartered and tax resident in the United Kingdom, incorporated in the Bailiwick of Jersey. Both parent companies will maintain commercial relationships with the entity to ensure seamless end-to-end service for their respective domestic customer bases. Clive Selley will continue to lead BT International as CEO until the transaction closes.

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