Under the terms of the agreement, Telefónica DE will be able to offer high-speed broadband services to customers on Vodafone and Unitymedia’s cable network in Germany. The agreement is subject to the completion of Vodafone’s acquisition of Liberty Global’s operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, which is awaiting approval from the European Commission.
“Our deal with Liberty Global is transformational in many ways,” said Nick Read (pictured), CEO of Vodafone Group. “It is a significant step towards a gigabit society, which will enable consumers & businesses to access the world of content & digital services at high speeds. It also creates a converged national challenger in four important European countries, bringing innovation and greater choice. We are very pleased to announce today our cable wholesale access agreement with Telefonica DE, enabling them to bring faster broadband speeds to their customers and further enhancing infrastructure competition across Germany.”
In addition, the deal will enable Telefónica DE to able to market broadband services over the combined Vodafone and Unitymedia cable network in Germany, which covers approximately 23.7 million households. In turn, Telefónica DE customers will benefit from access to download speeds of up to 300Mbps on the combined cable network. The cable wholesale agreement has been signed on a long-term basis, with Telefónica DE committed to achieving a minimum level of customers over the term of the contract.
Following discussions with the European Commission, Vodafone has submitted a remedy package comprising the Cable Wholesale Agreement and a commitment to ensure sufficient capacity is available for OTT TV distribution, (the OTT Commitment). The European Commission now intends to undertake market testing of the remedy package, which is expected to conclude during May 2019.
Vodafone now expects the European Commission to undertake market testing of the remedy package, and to adopt its decision on the deal by July 2019 with completion taking place later that month.
