Vodafone Hutchison Australia is ahead of schedule with plans to augment its mobile network using fiber backhaul from ISP TPG Telecom.
Vodafone Australia last year announced an A$1 billion ($690 million) deal with TPG to link its base stations with TPG's extensive fiber network.
The first sites with existing backhaul links replaced with TPG fiber connections have now come online, Vodafone Hutchison Australia CTO Benoit Hanssen told the Australian Associated Press.
But the project is a multi-year deployment that is expected to take another two years to complete, he said.
As part of the agreement, TPG will meanwhile switch from reselling Optus mobile services to reselling Vodafone services.
The project is expected to cost TPG between A$300 million and A$400 million in rollout costs and deliver minimum revenue of A$900 million over the 15-year term of the contract.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia is also planning to use the rollout as part of its efforts to prepare for the introduction of 5G services to the market.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia is a joint venture between Vodafone Group and Hutchison Telecommunications. The venture provides services under the Vodafone brand in Australia, which is the third largest of the nation's three main mobile service brands.