India has concluded its long-delayed 5G auction, raising almost $19 million in what proved to be a much more competitive process than anticipated. 
The seminal 5G auction made spectrum in a huge array of spectrum bands – 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, 3.3GHz, and 26GHz – available to the operators for the first time. 
The Indian operators have been trialling the new technology for the past year, with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) all suggesting they would look to launch 5G services in 2022 as soon as the auction has concluded.
For a long time, however, the extent to which the Indian operators would want to compete in the 5G auction was unclear…

India has concluded its long-delayed 5G auction, raising almost $19 million in what proved to be a much more competitive process than anticipated. 

The seminal 5G auction made spectrum in a huge array of spectrum bands – 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, 3.3GHz, and 26GHz – available to the operators for the first time. 

The Indian operators have been trialling the new technology for the past year, with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) all suggesting they would look to launch 5G services in 2022 as soon as the auction has concluded.

For a long time, however, the extent to which the Indian operators would want to compete in the 5G auction was unclear, with the telcos complaining that the spectrum’s reserve prices were too high. At time, Airtel had even threatened not to bid for spectrum at all if the price was not lowered. 

Ultimately, however, the government agreed to reduce prices by only a small margin, but instead introduced various measures to make the operators participation more viable. This included giving the operators the option to pay for the spectrum in annual instalments, surrender the spectrum back to the government after 10 years, and also completely removed spectrum usage charges.

As a result, this week the Indian operators have bid for spectrum with relative intensity, purchasing 71% of the spectrum available.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Reliance Jio has won the lion’s share of the spectrum, spending roughly $11.15 billion to acquire blocks of 700MHz, 800MHz, 1.8GHz, 3.3GHz, and 26GHz spectrum. 

« We will celebrate ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ [75th Year of Independence Day of India] with a pan India 5G rollout, » said Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio. « Jio is committed to offering world-class, affordable 5G and 5G-enabled services. We will provide services, platforms and solutions that will accelerate India’s digital revolution, especially in crucial sectors like Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, Manufacturing and e-Governance. » 

Airtel was the second largest winner, spending $5.45 billion, focussing largely on the 3.3GHz and 26GHz bands. The company also bought spectrum in the 900MHz, 1.8GHz, and 2.1GHz bands and notably ignored the 700MHz band, which it still deemed to be too expensive.

Cash-strapped Vi purchased $2.37 billion-worth of 3.3GHz and 26GHz spectrum for limited deployment in certain circles. 

« We have successfully acquired mid-band 5G spectrum (3.3GHz band) in our 17 priority circles and mmWave 5G spectrum (26GHz band) in 16 circles, which will enable us to offer a superior 5G experience to our customers as well as strengthen our enterprise offerings and provide new opportunities for business growth in the emerging 5G era, » explained the company in a statement. 

The final bidder in the auction was wireless newcomer Adani Group, backed by billionaire Gautam Adani. 

Indian operators had initially complained to the regulator when it was announced that the spectrum auction would be opened to enterprise players, arguing that this could cost them valuable revenue and thereby impact their ability to roll out 5G efficiently to Indian consumers. They also worried that this would allow major corporations, like Adani Group, to strongarm their way into the consumer mobile market, giving them greater leverage to acquire or merge with mobile players.

However, it seems that their fears were largely unfounded. Adani Group proved the only non-operator to sign up to participate in the auction and has walked away with a meagre 400MHz of spectrum, spending just $26.84 million – surely too small a quantity to represent a threat to the existing mobile ecosystem. 

Adani Groups says the spectrum will be used to offer private network services to enterprise customers.

The conclusion of the auction marks a major step for the Indian telecoms industry, one that the government hopes will become the backbone of its booming digital economy. 

It is worth noting, however, that there is one more player that could yet play a supporting role in India’s growing mobile market: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). 

The government is currently attempting to reinvigorate state-run fixed line operator BSNL, recently announcing a $20.5 billion relief package for the company and giving it the green light to merge with Bharat Broadband Network Limited, the company deploying and operating BharatNet. 

Despite struggling to compete against Jio and Airtel in the fixed line market, BSNL has long had ambitions of becoming a major wireless player. So far, however, it only has a nationwide 3G network and a very limited 4G deployment, recording around 110 million subscribers in September 2021. The company’s long-awaited nationwide 4G launch could finally take place later this year – indeed, the government granted BSNL additional 4G spectrum as part of its relief package – but this would likely be after its mobile rivals had already begun to launch 5G. 

BSNL has been conducting its own 5G trials over the last year, but did not bid for any 5G spectrum at this week’s auction, meaning their potential 5G future is mired in uncertainty.  

Today, Chilean state-run infrastructure fund Desarrollo País and H2 Cable, a subsidiary of Singapore’s BW Digital, have announced they now seeking a partner to begin work on the Humboldt Cable, a submarine cable system set to link Latin America to the Asia Pacific and Oceania regions for the first time. 
 
The planned Humboldt Cable will span roughly 15,000km as it connects Valparaiso, Chile, to Sydney, Australia. From there, Humboldt will interconnect to other cable systems in Asia.
 
The initial plans for the system also include provisions deploy additional branches to the Juan Fernández Islands, Easter Island and New Zealand, further diversifying the route…

Today, Chilean state-run infrastructure fund Desarrollo País and H2 Cable, a subsidiary of Singapore’s BW Digital, have announced they now seeking a partner to begin work on the Humboldt Cable, a submarine cable system set to link Latin America to the Asia Pacific and Oceania regions for the first time. 

The planned Humboldt Cable will span roughly 15,000km as it connects Valparaiso, Chile, to Sydney, Australia. From there, Humboldt will interconnect to other cable systems in Asia.

The initial plans for the system also include provisions deploy additional branches to the Juan Fernández Islands, Easter Island and New Zealand, further diversifying the route. 

Only once the RFP is complete will we have a good idea of the costs of the cable, but early estimates range between $450 million and $650 million.

Currently, all data seeking to travel across the Pacific Ocean from South America must first travel up the continent’s west coast and into the USA, with the most southerly transpacific cables currently coming ashore in California.

Thus, the new Humboldt Cable would provide a much more direct route for South American data traffic across the Pacific, potentially positioning Chile as a major regional connectivity hub. Once completed, Humboldt is expected to carry around 18% of the data traffic between South America and Asia, with studies suggesting this could grow to 28% over the next 25 years.  

« We have set an ambitious goal to transform Chile into a digital hub for Latin America, » said Desarrollo País CEO Patricio Rey Sommer. « The project is entering its most challenging stage with the technical definition of the route and schedules for execution now being set, and we have asked that suppliers’ proposals be based on an Open Cable System model. »

The Chilean government calls the Humboldt system “one of the most ambitious projects of the last decades”, suggesting that it will allow for greater investment in Chile and help facilitate the adoption of the latest technologies throughout the country.

“The Humboldt cable is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious projects of the last decades. We are talking about a strategic investment that puts us at the level of what the digital revolution demands and offers us enormous opportunities for the development of an industry with great potential in our country,” said Gloria Hutt, Chile’s Minister of Transport and Telecommunications. “We are sure that through this project we will expand competitive advantages and further promote investment interest in Chile. Along this path we will be able to expand the development of digital solutions such as the Data Center, Big Data and Machine Learning, which will imply multiple economic benefits that will have a direct impact on the quality of life of Chileans.”

« The Humboldt cable is going to represent enormous growth in terms of the links and capabilities of the region to cooperate and develop joint research capabilities with research and education networks located in Asia, » explained Luis Cadenas, executive director of RedClara.

There is also a suggestion that the Humboldt Cable could be extended to Antarctica, in order to support the scientific communities located on the continent. Currently these communities are primarily delivered connectivity via very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite systems, which access geosynchronous or geostationary satellites to relay data. However, as the volume of data being handled by the station’s increases, these VSAT will begin to be unfeasible.

Naturally, there is a geopolitical element here too. Antarctica has been designated as a neutral scientific preserve since the 1960s, with long-term research staff present on the continent from 29 countries at any one time. Chile, with its close proximity to the continent, exerts considerable influence over the region, something that would be significantly increased if Chile could become the thoroughfare for the continent’s scientific data to reach the rest of the world.

Today sees the start of a two-day strike by BT and Openreach workers, with over 260 picket lines being set up across the UK, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
The conflict has arisen as a result of a companywide flat rate pay rise of £1,500 announced back in April. BT says this is the largest frontline worker pay rise it has given out in 20 years, but the unions say that this is a ‘pay cut in real terms&’…

Today sees the start of a two-day strike by BT and Openreach workers, with over 260 picket lines being set up across the UK, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The conflict has arisen as a result of a companywide flat rate pay rise of £1,500 announced back in April. BT says this is the largest frontline worker pay rise it has given out in 20 years, but the unions say that this is a ‘pay cut in real terms’, given that inflation is nearing 10% in the UK.

At a time when the cost-of-living crisis is hitting everyone across the country, BT has also been accused of setting up a ‘food bank’ for staff at one of its EE call centres in Tyneside, with critics suggesting this was normalising in-work poverty. 

The operator argues that its “CommunitEE pantry” is not a food bank, but rather a voluntary initiative where staff can take and leave food, saying staff might use it on days when they “don’t have time to visit the supermarket”.

This was also announced against the backdrop of a largely successful year for BT, which last year saw profits of £1.3 billion. Roughly $700 million was paid out to shareholders in 2021 and CEO Philip Jansen received a pay rise of 32% to £3.5 million. 

« This dispute sits squarely at the feet of Philip Jansen (BT’s chief executive). He represents everything that needs to change about big business in Britain,” said the CWU’s general secretary, Dave Ward. « Our members kept the country connected during the pandemic. They deserve a proper pay rise, and that’s what they’re going to get. »

BT, however, says that its exhaustive negotiations with the unions have failed and that it is not prepared to offer a pay increase to workers.

When asked by the Financial Times if he would consider increasing staff salary further, Jansen reportedly answered “why would I do that?”, telling the newspaper “it’s history”.

« We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could,” said BT in an official statement. 

« We’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people.

« While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected.”

Unlike rail and postal strikes, striking telecoms workers will not mean an immediate shut down of services for customers. BT says it has implemented “tried and tested processes” to manage any disruption that the strikes may cause to its operations.

Nonetheless, the walkout of around 28,000 engineers and 9,000 call centre workers today and on Monday next week is sure to cause some disruption, the true extent of which has yet to become clear. 

Will industrial action have a major impact on BT’s ability to meet national rollout goals? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news:

The company announced that it plans to spend €6.5 billion by 2030 to deploy 22,000 new sites across its 12 European markets, indicating a shift away from M&A activity following the recent failed attempt to acquire Deutsche Telekom&’…

The company announced that it plans to spend €6.5 billion by 2030 to deploy 22,000 new sites across its 12 European markets, indicating a shift away from M&A activity following the recent failed attempt to acquire Deutsche Telekom’s towers portfolio in Germany and Austria, which was eventually purchased by investors DigitalBridge and Brookfield two weeks ago.

Cellnex had previously acquired sites across Europe at a rapid pace, including a €10bn deal to acquire CK Hutchinson’s European portfolio back in 2020. However, Cellnex are now pivoting to focus on consolidation and organic growth, with CEO Tobias Martinez indicating that the focus for the short term will be on potentially bolting on projects and smaller scale acquisitions, though he didn’t rule out a return to large-scale M&A if the opportunities were there.

While Cellnex lost out on DT’s tower portfolio, the company are in a strong position overall, posting revenues of €1.69bn in the first half of 2022, a 59% increase on the same period last year. While costs have also increased, this is expected given the growth of its portfolio across Europe. As the operator described, “the key financial indicators continue to reflect Cellnex’s expanded geographic footprint – after integrating the sites acquired in 2021 – and the strength of the Group’s organic business.”

As always with Europe’s passive infrastructure market – watch this space.

Another national fibre network player is set to hit the UK market, with Liberty Global and Telefonica teaming up with InfraVia Capital Partners to create and operate a wholesale FTTH JV. The JV will be owned 50% by Liberty and Telefonica via a holding company…

Another national fibre network player is set to hit the UK market, with Liberty Global and Telefonica teaming up with InfraVia Capital Partners to create and operate a wholesale FTTH JV.

The JV will be owned 50% by Liberty and Telefonica via a holding company, with the remaining 50% held by French investment firm InfraVia.  

The partners will invest roughly £4.5 billion in rolling out fibre, with the JV will initially target 5 million homes, none of which will overlap with Virgin Media O2 (VMO2)’s existing fibre footprint. A further 2 million homes could be added at a later stage.

Virgin Media O2 itself is currently working to upgrade its own national footprint of 16 million homes to FTTH, hence the two combined networks aim to cover 23 million premises with fibre.

“This JV will take our aggregate FTTH footprint to up to 23 million homes, reaching around 80% of the UK. VMO2 will bring significant build expertise, and will benefit from a meaningful off-net growth opportunity and as the anchor client will support attractive returns for the JV – a winning combination,” explained Mike Fries, CEO and Vice Chairman of Liberty Global. “Finally, we are very excited to be working with InfraVia who we already partner with in Germany, and welcome the expertise they bring to the JV.”

VMO2 will be the anchor client of the new network.

The deal is expected to close in Q4 this year, pending regulatory approval.  

The creation of this new JV will be a headache for BT, which is today in the news as a result of nationwide strikes by the Communications Workers Union.

Much like VMO2, BT is currently in the process of increase its fibre rollout, targeting 25 million homes by the end of 2026.

How will this new JV shake up the UK’s connectivity industry? Find out from the experts at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

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Orange Belgium first announced their intention to take a 75% stake in fixed line operator VOO back in November 2021, with the Wallonia-based operator valued at roughly €1.8 billion.
The move would present Orange the chance to offer both mobile and fixed line services in Belgium for the first time – a key element of Orange’s wider Engage2025 strategy, which aims to create converged fixed and wireless businesses throughout the company&’…

Orange Belgium first announced their intention to take a 75% stake in fixed line operator VOO back in November 2021, with the Wallonia-based operator valued at roughly €1.8 billion.

The move would present Orange the chance to offer both mobile and fixed line services in Belgium for the first time – a key element of Orange’s wider Engage2025 strategy, which aims to create converged fixed and wireless businesses throughout the company’s European portfolio.

The Belgian fixed line market is currently dominated by the Proximus and Telenet, which have market shares of 44.8% and 36.2%, respectively. VOO sits in a somewhat distant third place with roughly 10.3%. 

In the Belgian mobile market, meanwhile, Orange Belgium’s market share sits at around 25.7%, slightly behind Telenet’s 27.2%. Unsurprisingly, incumbent Proximus dominates in this market too, with a market share of around 40%.

As such, this majority stake sale would pull together the third-place players in both the fixed and mobile markets, potentially giving both companies a considerable opportunity to broaden their subscriber base. 

Naturally, any such deal of this scale and potentially disruptive impact to the market will draw the attention of antitrust regulators, which have been conducting preliminary investigations into the deal for the past few months. 

Now, anonymous sources are suggesting that this initial probe by the regulators will be conclude today with the announcement of a deeper, four-month investigation. 

This decision is reportedly a result of Orange failing to offer meaningful concessions to address the regulator’s competition concerns.

Orange argues that the deal will be good for Belgian customers and increase competition in the Wallonian market. 

« The opening of this phase is a new step during which we will have the time and the opportunity to demonstrate to the Commission that this transaction is beneficial for the sector and will make it possible to sustainably strengthen competition throughout Belgium, » said Orange in a statement. 

The past two months has been busy for the Belgian telecoms sector, which not only raised €1.2 billion in its latest spectrum auction but has also seen both Telenet and Proximus advance plans to create their own new fibre joint ventures for Wallonia and Flanders.

This growing interest in fibre deployment in Belgium should come as little surprise. Belgium has one of the lowest fibre penetration rates in Europe, lagging far behind its neighbours, particularly France. This creates a major opportunity for investors and telcos, who have in recent years combined their efforts with those of the Belgian government to deploy fibre at an astonishing rate. 

Today, Belgium has the fastest fibre deployment rate in Europe – something that Orange is surely looking to take advantage of.
 

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The 2020s are a shaping up to be a decade of change for telco business models. While connectivity itself is more important in all facets of our lives than ever before – as highlighted throughout the coronavirus pandemic – traditional voice and data service revenue are not growing in time with the surging demand. Combine this with the expenditure telcos face with the pricey rollout of new technologies like 5G and fibre, and the telecoms industry at large is looking for its next money-maker. 
For many operators…

The 2020s are a shaping up to be a decade of change for telco business models. While connectivity itself is more important in all facets of our lives than ever before – as highlighted throughout the coronavirus pandemic – traditional voice and data service revenue are not growing in time with the surging demand. Combine this with the expenditure telcos face with the pricey rollout of new technologies like 5G and fibre, and the telecoms industry at large is looking for its next money-maker. 

For many operators, this search has led for a shift in direction towards targeting the enterprise market, often through the deployment private networks, while for others the shift will be towards transforming into technology integrators and aggregators, offering customers suites of supporting services alongside connectivity. 

In South Korea, however, a new trend is emerging that could also prove surprisingly profitable: content creation. 

In fact, it is not content giants like Netflix or Amazon that are behind the latest smash hit South Korean TV series, but rather KT’s content creating subsidiary, KT Studio Genie. 

The show, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, which focusses on an autistic lawyer, is currently the most watched non-English TV series on Netflix in 190 countries and it is perhaps this potential to reach an enormous international audience that makes content creation so alluring to the operators.

The timing also could not be more perfect, with South Korean TV and cinema having begun to receive widespread critical acclaim in recent years, with award winning films like Parasite and TV series like Squid Game helping to make the country’s entertainment industry much more approachable for Western audiences. 

KT first set up Studio Genie back in March 2021 and Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ is only its second production, following the slightly lacklustre “Never Give Up” last year. 

Nonetheless, it represents a key part of KT’s media strategy, with the company saying it would invest around $380 million to produce over 30 new drama series and 300 entertainment programmes by 2025. In fact, the studio intends to release 22 drama series by the end of 2022.

And KT is not alone in its considerable content creation ambitions. 

SK Telecom established a South Korean video streaming service, Content Wavve Corp., back in 2019, working alongside three of the country’s national broadcasters. Since then, then Wavve has pledged to invest around $760 million in content creation by 2025.

LG Uplus, meanwhile, has recently invested an undisclosed sum in children’s animation studio SAMG Entertainment, while also bolstering its own Content Platform Business Group, which is set to focus on 5G-based virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) content. 

Of course, this is not to mention the work that all three operators are doing with regards to the metaverse, with each making strategic investments in this area in 2022. SK Telecom in particular seems to have something of a lead in this area, already making international partnerships to help offer its metaverse platform, Ifland, to customers abroad. 

The South Korean telcos appear to be unanimous in their decision to be directly involved in content creation, rejecting the conventional wisdom of operators in Western markets that have instead struck partnerships with content players like Netflix and bundled these services alongside connectivity. 

Now, with Netflix no longer looking like the unassailable behemoth it once was, betting big on content could be a big win for the South Korean telecoms operators. Their international rivals are sure to be watching the situation closely. 
 

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A 2015 United Nations report estimated that every year, an average of 60,000 people and $4 billion USD in assets are exposed to the global tsunami hazard, which can be triggered by certain types of undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  Over a number of decades, various countries have deployed dedicated tsunami warning systems, like floating buoys, to augment land-based seismic detectors. 
Seismic waves travel 20 to 30 times faster through the earth&’…

A 2015 United Nations report estimated that every year, an average of 60,000 people and $4 billion USD in assets are exposed to the global tsunami hazard, which can be triggered by certain types of undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  Over a number of decades, various countries have deployed dedicated tsunami warning systems, like floating buoys, to augment land-based seismic detectors. 

Seismic waves travel 20 to 30 times faster through the earth’s crust than a tsunami wave, so if they can be detected and localized, it should be possible to determine which coastal areas are at risk and send early warnings.  We need detectors in as many locations as possible because, for every 200-km distance between the earthquake’s epicenter and the point of detection, there is an additional one-minute delay to a potential warning. 

This is where submarine communication cables can play a part.  Initiatives are underway by the Joint Task Force, Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (JTF SMART) to promote the inclusion of dedicated seismic detection and environmental monitoring sensors in the next generation of submarine cable repeaters.  But new cables are deployed at a relatively low rate of perhaps 20 to 30 per year.  In contrast, there are hundreds of existing long-distance submarine cables deployed around the world – can something be done retroactively with these cables to turn them into seismic detectors? 

This weekend, Orange and Másmovíl have announced that they are officially moving forward with their planned merger to create a 50:50 joint venture in Spain.
The deal values Orange Spain was valued at €7.8 billion and Másmovíl at €10.9 billion, giving the combined entity a market value of €18.6 billion. 
The combined, converged operator would have roughly 7.1 million fixed line customers and 20.2 million mobile subscribers…

This weekend, Orange and Másmovíl have announced that they are officially moving forward with their planned merger to create a 50:50 joint venture in Spain.

The deal values Orange Spain was valued at €7.8 billion and Másmovíl at €10.9 billion, giving the combined entity a market value of €18.6 billion. 

The combined, converged operator would have roughly 7.1 million fixed line customers and 20.2 million mobile subscribers. Its combined fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network would reach over 16 million homes. It would also include around 1.5 million TV customers. 

As such, the operators suggest that the merger will generate around €450 million in synergies over the following three years, with the company saying they expect “significant efficiency gains, allowing the combined company to accelerate investments in FTTH and 5G that will benefit Spanish customers”.

It is also worth noting that the deal also includes provision for a potential initial public offering (IPO) opportunity one or two years after the closing of the deal; the deal would allow both parties to trigger an IPO after a certain time and if certain conditions are met, though Orange will always have the option of taking control of the business at the IPO price.

“The joint venture […] will create a sustainable player with the financial capacity and scale to continue investing to foster the future of infrastructure competition in Spain,” said the companies in a statement. 

The deal comes after many months of speculation, with Másmovíl having been rumoured to be having merger talks with both Vodafone and Movistar, as well as Orange, at various times over the past couple of years. Official discussions with Orange were first revealed back in March and since then the operators have been chasing the requisite financing for the deal, finally securing €6.5 billion from roughly a dozen banks in recent weeks.

The move represents a major shakeup for the highly competitive Spanish telecoms market, combining the second and fourth largest players and creating a new market leader (combined market share roughly 44%), overcoming the current dominance of Telefonica’s Movistar (36%). Vodafone Spain, meanwhile, will be left in a somewhat distant third place, with a market share of only around 20%. 

Vodafone itself had explored merging its operations with Másmovíl numerous times in the past few years, with analysts suggesting that such a coupling would present less concern to regulators than the tie-up with Orange. Nonetheless, Vodafone has said that it approves of the Orange– Másmovíl merger, saying that it will improve the health of the market and attract additional investment. 

Antitrust regulators, however, may be harder to appease. Typically, these regulatory bodies have looked unfavourably at M&A that reduces the number of players in a telecoms market below four and Orange and Másmovíl will likely expect major conditions to be attached by the regulator before the deal is given the green light.

Assuming they receive regulatory approval, Orange and Másmovíl hope to have the deal closed by H2 of 2023.

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Today, Spanish reports suggest that Másmóvil has sold a 51% stake in Euskaltel’s newly separated fibre access network unit, EKT Cable, to a Spanish consortium.  
The consortium, known as Bidasoa Aggregator, includes various Spanish investment funds…

Today, Spanish reports suggest that Másmóvil has sold a 51% stake in Euskaltel’s newly separated fibre access network unit, EKT Cable, to a Spanish consortium.  

The consortium, known as Bidasoa Aggregator, includes various Spanish investment funds, including Asúa Inversiones, Beraunberri, Inveready, and Onchena. 

The deal is reportedly worth around €580 million, of which €500 million will be used to reduce the Másmóvil’s debt load.

According to sources, the move should allow Euskaltel to accelerate its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) rollout in Basque Country, Galicia and Asturias, where the company has targets of migrating 2.1 million people to fibre services and away from older copper infrastructure.

The deal does not include Euskaltel’s trunk fibre network or transmission assets, which will continue to be owned and operated by Másmóvil/Euskaltel.

Másmóvil acquired Basque operator Euskaltel for roughly €2 billion last year, having itself only been acquired back in June 2020 by a trio of private equity funds – KKR, Cinven, and Providence – for $3.3 billion.

Since then, Másmóvil has agreed to merge with Orange Spain, aiming to create a 50:50 joint venture with an enterprise value of roughly €20 billion. Earlier this month, reports suggest that the duo announced they were closing in on the €6.5 billion in funding they would need to complete the merger, with the money being provided by around a dozen major banks.

Also in the news: