Telefónica, Vodafone FTTH alliance
March 16, 2017
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Telcos Telefónica and Vodafone have reached a breakthrough agreement over FTTH whereby Vodafone will be able to use Telefónica’s FTTH networks in exchange for a fee over a five-year period.
The deal will enable Vodafone to have access to its rival’s FTTH networks in the largest 66 cities in the country where Telefónica was not previously able to share its infrastructure, thus allowing Vodafone to reach a greater number of potential subscribers. Overall, Telefónica currently has over 17 million FTTH passed homes.
For Vodafone, this deal means the company will be able to reach more homes with FTTH and will not have to invest in deploying FTTH networks. For Telefónica, it will get fixed revenues from Vodafone for the access to the networks making a quicker return on investment.
To avoid a possible ban on the agreement from the CNMC, both companies have said that the deal is also open to third parties, such as Orange.