The agreement is designed to help with the roll out of faster broadband to customers, with Vodafone and Orange said to be making one-off payments on individual installations, the prices of which will be set by Spanish regulator CMT.
Vodafone and Orange will have the immediate benefit of accessing Telefónica’s fibre optic network that reaches over two million homes in Spain. In return, Telefónica will over time enhance its network coverage by having access to Vodafone and Orange’s network, which is presently being rolled out.
The two companies plan to invest up to €1 billion in a fibre-optic network, which is expected to provide high-speed internet to over six million homes. Services are expected to be running on the infrastructure by January 2014 with over 800,000 premises connected by March 2014.
The developments could help break the monopoly on Spain’s fibre-optic market, which has previously been viewed as deficient in terms of competition.
