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Monday, 08 October 2007 |
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Mobile giant spends €775mn on Tele2’s fixed-line businesses in Italy and Spain, including the acquisition of nearly 650,000 broadband customers, as part of its push into converged fixed-mobile services.
Vodafone is following the unbundled loop route to develop its fixed-mobile service offering in Italy and Spain. It already owns major cellular businesses in both markets, with 21mn Italian customers and a similar number in Spain.
Broadband penetration rates in Italy and Spain are 44% and 57% of households respectively, with Tele2 boasting 400,000 DSL customers in the former and 240,000 in the latter.
According to Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, “this acquisition is consistent with our strategy of meeting our customers’ total communications needs. It will generate substantial time to market benefits in Italy and Spain, where low broadband penetration and the market structure make ownership of fixed broadband assets attractive. We have now established a clear route to delivering fixed broadband services in each of our major European markets.”
Vodafone’s push into DSL and fixed-lined services is part of its attempt to match similar strategies adopted by the wireless units of integrated telcos such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica. Its strong brand identity will hold the key to this move away from pure-play mobile, although arguably the brand is still pure-play in character, even if the company itself no longer wants to be.
Jim Chalmers
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