Finetwork is one of those operators that appear immediately after talking about the big four with their own network. The company based in Elda (Alicante) has summoned the press this morning to discuss its plans for the future. They rule out a sale or merger with another operator and confirm their ambitions for the coming years. This is all they have told us.
Óscar Vilda, the new CEO of Finetwork since last April, has been in charge of explaining these and many other issues to the journalists who attended this morning. Vilda, a veteran of the sector who has been at Orange or Vodafone, has started by making it clear that Finetwork is not for sale. In fact, he sees them as on the opposite side of that consolidating trend. Of course, he has confirmed that there are three funds interested in the entry of the company that would help finance growth plans and remedies. “There is a lot of investor appetite in the company.”
They are not for sale: they want to grow (and a lot)
In addition to clarifying this aspect in his strategy, he has updated the company’s figures to May 2023. Here we have seen how revenues have grown by 23% or EBITDA has multiplied by four. In the field of mobile lines they have grown by 10% while in fixed broadband lines that growth has stood at 9%, not bad in any of the markets. In total, they already have more than 900,000 customers with the aim of reaching one million during the months of October or November of this year.
These figures show that Finetwork’s strategy has been to grow in clients, distribution and income. In fact, they want to reinforce the distribution section by adding more than 1,000 telesales positions that will be crucial for everything they have set out to achieve in the coming years.
The key, however, is that they want to compete, but not like other players in the market are doing. “We want to compete on price, but we want our brand to have value”, added Vilda, to which she followed with a very clarifying message: “we don’t want to destroy the market”.
All this is articulated within the company’s new business plan called “DOUBLE”. This is a roadmap that aims to boost the growth of the Alicante company until 2027, reinforcing its position in the telecommunications sector.
Increase fiber coverage
To do this, they must be able to increase their fiber coverage, something that they will look for in different ways. The first is with agreements with third-party operators that have their own network, such as Movistar, Orange, Vodafone or the MásMóvil Group. The second way is through the possible remedies that arise from the conditions that Europe imposes on the merger between Orange and MásMóvil. They make it clear that, in no case, will they deploy their own fiber.
If we want to see it in figures, they want to have coverage of 15 million homes in 2024 and 20 million homes in 2026. This would mean multiplying by 6 the fiber optic footprint that the company currently has in our country. The aforementioned investment funds interested in entering the company would be key to this brutal growth in fiber coverage. An interesting fact is that they are the only operator that can change wholesale provider in 2024 due to the end of their wholesale agreement with Vodafone.
Another of the topics mentioned is that their OTT television will be launched at the end of June or July. Currently they already have Amazon Prime in the proposal, but this television will be much more competitive. Of course, it will not carry the most important sports content.
“Ambition is part of Finetwork’s DNA and we have a plan to match. With the new structural and business changes that we are implementing, I am sure that our success will continue. During the last month, we have already shown that we are on the right track, we have a quality offer, and our objective is to make it better known in order to maximize our commercial activity. The focus on supporting our Distribution will be essential on this journey. Facing this new stage, we will put all our efforts into improving the experience of our customers, and boosting the value of our brand, with an eye always set on our ambitious goal, DOUBLE”, Óscar Vilda ended by saying.
