Macquarie is bulking up its fibre network Vocus Group to pitch more aggressively for data-hungry customers after striking a $5.25 billion deal with TPG Telecom to emerge as one of Australia’s biggest owners of underground fibre.

Three years after the home-grown asset manager snared half of Vocus in what was initially a 50-50 partnership with Aware Super, it has finally reached an agreement to buy TPG’s network assets enabling it to connect almost 20,000 buildings around the country.