The telecommunications operator Digi seeks to fulfill one of the objectives that it has been planning for some time: taking advantage of the merger between Orange and MásMóvil. But, for this, he needs some financing. For this reason, it is already preparing the sale of its fiber optic network to the home to the investment fund Macquarie Capital.
In recent weeks and months, Digi has been very present in the merger of Orange and MásMóvil, and one of the operators that can take over part of the leftover assets from said merger is the Romanian operator. Although, to do this, he needs to finance the assets and thus be able to profit in the future. This has led the operator to maintain negotiations, which are already quite advanced, to sell 100% of its fiber in Spain to Onivia’s partners, which are Abrdn, Daiwa and Arjun.
Smart fiber for sale
For several years, Digi has deployed its own fiber optic network to the home (FTTH) throughout Spain. A network that offers three different rates at low prices, although it is not available to everyone. In any case, in recent years the Romanian operator has deployed this network, however, it now has the ‘for sale’ sign in order to obtain the necessary financing to take over the excess assets that Brussels forces to transfer to Orange and MásMóvil for its merger.
And the thing is that, with the sale of its Smart fiber network, the truth is that the Romanian operator will be able to assume without problems this investment, which is not exactly low, with which it aims to meet another of its objectives: deploy its own mobile network in Spain. . It must be remembered that, to date, it continues to use Movistar’s mobile and fiber network. In addition to its own fiber in Spain.
Digi’s idea is to transfer to the consortium headed by Macquarie Capital, the almost 6 million FTTH accesses that it currently has in Spain. In addition, it must be taken into account that these are not part of its 50/50 alliance with Abrdn in fiber. The price? According to the latest information from Expansión, the negotiations are aimed at the transfer of the fiber network for a value of 1,000 million euros.
Before the end of the year, we could find out about this new operator agreement, although it is possible that it will not finally be closed, since it is not completely done either. On the other hand, it could also negotiate to sell part of its fiber network only and not transfer 100% of its network, as has occurred in other fiber agreements already closed in Spain.
Digi already agrees with Orange-MásMóvil
Just yesterday, the preliminary agreement between Digi and Orange-MásMóvil was announced so that the Romanian operator can take the assets of this merger. To be more exact, the telecos agreed to transfer 60 MHz of radio spectrum so that Digi can deploy its own mobile network tomorrow.
This pact, which serves to give way to the merger, the truth is that it will give the Romanian operator the perfect opportunity. However, everything indicates that it will opt for a RAN Sharing model, which means that an operator will use Digi’s frequencies to radiate them with its own equipment. And all because it is cheaper and easier to deploy than building an infrastructure from scratch.
