Vodafone Spain, Telefónica and Bluvia Fiber (Telefónica’s fiber optic subsidiary for rural areas) have signed this Thursday the renewal for the next five years of their fiber wholesale agreement, according to Zegona reported in a statementthe British fund that Vodafone Spain has owned since last June.
Zegona recalled that this year it has signed agreements with both Telefónica and MasOrange for the creation of fiber joint ventures, as well as a non-binding term sheet for a new fiber wholesale agreement with Telefónica.
“The combination of these three transactions was designed to complete the transformation of Vodafone Spain’s fixed strategy, offering complete fiber to the home (FTTH) services nationwide in Spain. Today’s announcement provides a key component of that strategy” , Zegona highlighted.
In this way, Vodafone Spain’s new wholesale fiber contract with Telefónica will come into force on January 1, 2025 and will replace the current one, which expires at the end of this year.
“The new terms will mean significant economic benefits for Vodafone Spain, in addition to improving basic operational processes and customer experience,” the British fund has stressed.
In this context, it is worth remembering that Vodafone Spain is also in a process to try to renegotiate its contracts with the telecommunications tower provider Vantage Towers (in which the Vodafone group and the Global Infrastructure Partners and KKR funds participate) in order to make them cheaper. .
Joint venture
In this context, the president and CEO of Zegona, Eamonn O’Hare, has emphasized that the renewal of this contract complements that of the creation of the joint venture of fiber with Telefónica, which was also signed this Thursday.
“Both contracts consolidate our long-term collaboration with Telefónica, offer important economic benefits and represent key milestones on our path towards the transformation of Vodafone Spain,” added the manager.
Specifically, Telefónica will have 63% of the joint venture and Vodafone Spain the remaining 37%, although the objective is for a third investor to enter the company, despite which Telefónica will maintain its majority position.
The new company will cover approximately 3.6 million real estate units, with assets that are currently part of Telefónica de España’s fiber and that represent approximately 12% of its national network. It is estimated that the company will initially have around 1.4 million customers, which implies a penetration level of approximately 40%.
Telefónica and Vodafone Spain already announced at the end of last July their intention to create this joint venturewith which the two operators plan to improve the offer of fiber broadband services in the Spanish market for the final consumer.
Agreement with MasOrange
In this way, the agreement will be similar to the one recently signed between Vodafone Spain and Masorange, aimed at the creation of a joint venture fiber network, although the volume of homes managed in this case is much higher, specifically, around 11.5 million.
Also last July, Masorange and Vodafone Spain announced the signing of a “confidential” and “non-binding” letter of intent with the main terms of a network sharing agreement in Spain, which is expected to result in the creation of a fiber network joint venture, for which they are seeking a third investor.
If finalized, the new shared network partnership will cover approximately 11.5 million installations in the country and provide access to fiber optic services to Masorange and Vodafone Spain in that footprint.
Likewise, the plan is for Masorange to control 50% of the company, for Vodafone Spain to have 10% and for the third investor being sought to hold the remaining 40% of the company. fiberco. Furthermore, the closing of the operation is expected to occur in the first half of 2025.
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