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Vodafone Strikes €18.4B Deal to Buy Liberty Assets Already a significant cable broadband access network owner in Europe, Vodafone has struck an €18.4 billion (US$21.8 billion) deal to acquire Liberty Global's cable operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania in a move to create one of Europe's biggest integrated fixed/mobile service providers. The deal, announced early Wednesday, comes after weeks of speculation and would produce a huge rival to German incumbent Deutsche Telekom, as well as bolstering Vodafone's fixed-line capabilities in several eastern European markets. (See Will Liberty & Vodafone Strike a Deal? What Will It Mean for Headcount?) The agreement with Liberty Global Inc. (Nasdaq: LBTY), one of Europe's biggest operators of cable networks, is the latest cable broadband M&A move by Vodafone, which has acquired cable assets in Spain (ONO) and Germany (Kabel Deutschland) during the past five years. It will leave Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) with around 54 million cable or fiber customers and a next-generation network reach of about 110 million homes and businesses, the operator noted in a presentation to investors and analysts early Wednesday. The transaction would make Vodafone the chief rival in Germany to incumbent national operator Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT), which currently markets broadband services to around 30 million homes. Unitymedia, Liberty's German subsidiary, would be added to the Kabel Deutschland business that Vodafone acquired in a €7.7 billion ($9.1 billion) deal in 2013, allowing Vodafone to market next-generation broadband services to nearly 24 million homes across the key European market.
Vodafone's CEO Vittorio Colao sees value in building an even greater cable broadband empire across Europe.
Under previously announced plans to extend "gigabit" network offerings to around 1 million German homes, Vodafone is pushing for a gigabit coverage target of 25 million homes by 2022. "This represents more than two thirds of the German government's 2020 fiber vision for gigabit connectivity across the country," said Vittorio Colao, Vodafone's CEO, during the presentation. For the full story and financial details, see the following story on our sister site, Light Reading: Vodafone Pounces on Liberty Cable Assets in €18.4B Deal. — Iain Morris, International Editor, Light Reading |
UK operator aims to cover more than 5.5 million premises with Gfast by the end of 2020, down from an original commitment of 10 million.
Happy with 5G fixed wireless broadband trials in Transylvania, Orange is now trying to figure out if there is a business case for an investment.
UK operator says an improved relationship with regulatory authorities bodes well for its ambition of extending all-fiber networks across the country.
A private equity takeover of the UK fiber operator could help it to realize its FTTH plans and maintain pressure on UK broadband incumbents.
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Tune in to Broadband World News Radio on February 14 at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT / 4 p.m. UK when John Isch, Practice Director of the Network and Voice Center of Excellence at Orange Business Services, discusses use cases, ROI and misconceptions of software-defined wide-area networks, virtualization and cloud.  Sponsored Video
Ronan Kelly, ADTRAN CTO, EMEA & APC, shares his thoughts on industry operators leveraging virtualization, disaggregation and open SDN control, ...
Network slicing promises to be a panacea, but the biggest hurdles are not technological. The grand ambition of enabling intelligent, adaptive, ...
F-Secure has been providing security for endpoints for 30 years, and using AI and machine learning algorithms, for example in the labs to automate ...
Fahri Diner, CEO and Co-founder of Plume, unveiled a new open source initiative, OpenSync, at Broadband World Forum 2018. Announced together with ...
Talking to Light Reading's Iain Morris, Sebastian Richter from devolo explains why operators have to think beyond delivering high bandwidth and ...
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Wednesday, December 12, 2018
12 p.m. New York / 5 p.m. London Consumers are buying millions of IoT devices, from smart thermostats and security systems to intelligent entertainment setups and furniture. Yet many of these devices remain isolated because home users are uncomfortable connecting them to each other – or even their WiFi. After all, their WiFi network was probably designed only to handle a few laptops, a gaming system and a couple of smartphones. Now, demand on the network is surging and even though you're delivering 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, that doesn't necessarily mean the broadband power is in the right place or reaches every corner of a home. Even if WiFi coverage is sufficient, typing is not on trend. Voice is far more natural, easier and faster. Using a TV keyboard is archaic when more and more households have access to cloud-based voice services, like Amazon Alexa. This webinar will explore how service providers can create a comfortable, truly smart home for consumers – simultaneously driving up margin and loyalty. Video
Alternative UK fixed-broadband network operator Community Fibre is deploying ADTRAN gear to take 10 Gbit/s to London users at aggressive prices.
At Broadband World Forum 2018 there's a lot of chat about the shift towards software-defined access networks, but how tough and how expensive ...
What are the hot talking points in the fixed broadband sector right now? Gigabit over copper as well as fiber, software-defined access and more, ...
Light Reading's pro-European, Berlin-lovin' editors Ray Le Maistre and Iain Morris discuss some of the hot topics from BBWF 2017, including Gfast ...
The UBB2020 community has had a great first four months thanks to a market that's on the up!
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