The mobile access network sharing agreement between Orange Belgium and its competitor Proximus has just been suspended by the Belgian Competition Authority after Telenet, the third largest mobile operator in the French overseas market, filed a complaint against it. Telenet believes that the alliance would create a giant on the Belgian telecoms market.

"Telenet understands what motivates mobile operators to want to share their mobile network, albeit within the limits of legality, but has serious questions about how far-reaching it is that Belgium's two largest mobile players want to work together in a joint venture," the management said.

All the more so as "such a far-reaching agreement between Proximus and Orange Belgium also has the effect of reducing the number of players holding mobile infrastructure from three to two", Telenet pointed out after an argument that did not leave the Belgian regulator indifferent. And that could well interest French operators.

"In view of their possible impact on competition, the Competition College requires Orange and Proximus to suspend the implementation of the shareholders' agreement and the RAN sharing agreement concluded between them on 22 November 2019, as of the date of receipt of this decision and until 16 March 2020," explained the Belgian Competition Authority at the end of last week.

The decision adopted by the Belgian Competition Authority allows Orange Belgium and Proximus to continue their preparatory work for the establishment of their future joint venture. Indeed, the Belgian regulator's decision "does not prevent the sending of RFPs for the acquisition of network equipment and the selection of employees to be transferred, if this does not lead to the conclusion of binding agreements".

However, Orange Belgium and Proximus were keen to defend their agreement finalised last November "the agreement on the sharing of the mobile access network will have positive effects for customers and for Belgian society as a whole, in particular a faster and wider deployment of 5G, a significant reduction in overall energy consumption and a total improvement of the mobile experience, while maintaining a strong differentiation between the parties in terms of services and customer experience".

As a reminder, this alliance aims to create a 50/50 joint venture between the two operators. "Although sharing their mobile access networks, the two companies will retain full control of their own spectrum resources and will continue to operate their core networks independently to ensure a differentiated customer and service experience," said Orange Belgium and Proximus at the announcement of the agreement.

The Belgian mobile telecommunications market is currently driven by three main operators: Proximus, (44% market share in 2017), followed by Orange Belgium (27%) and Telenet, (with a market share between 20 and 30%).

For several months now, various rumours have been circulating that a fourth operator is entering the Belgian market, thus introducing more competition in a market characterised by a small number of players and relatively high prices. In a study published in 2018, the Belgian regulator had itself shown itself in favour of the entry of a fourth mobile operator on the market, noting that this new competition would make it possible to lower prices and improve innovation, but at the risk of a reduction in investment, particularly in rural areas.

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Source : ZDNet

This time, let's do it! Operators who wish to launch into 5G can now apply to the Arcep for frequencies in the 3.4 - 3.8 GHz band. Operators must apply before 12 noon on February 25th 2020.

The regulatory authority will examine the applications and issue authorisations during the first half of 2020. It is expected that the four operators - Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile - will be successful at the end of the award procedure.

As resources are limited, the real question is how many frequencies each applicant will have.

A mixed allocation system has been planned: the frequencies are divided into fixed-price lots and variable-price lots, which will be determined by auction. The fixed-price lots each contain a 50 MHz block, while the variable-price lots consist of a 10 MHz block. An operator must apply for at least 40 MHz and is not allowed to have more than 100 MHz.

Fixed price blocks are sold for EUR 350 million each. The others start at EUR 70 million.

However, the government does not intend to squeeze the candidates and a certain flexibility in the purchase of frequencies is thus provided for: the 10 MHz blocks can be paid for over 4 years and the 50 MHz blocks over 15 years - this is the duration of the allocation of frequencies. This is the duration of the frequency allocation, which may be extended if necessary.

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Source : Numerama

After Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Ireland, the European telecommunications infrastructure giant Cellnex is setting out to conquer Portugal. On January 2, the company announced the acquisition of 100% of Portuguese tower operator OMTEL, valued at EUR 800 million, 25% of which was owned by Altice Europe, SFR's parent company.

The Portuguese company heads 25% of the tower network in Portugal and its main customer is PT Portugal, the operator owned by Altice Europe.

"With OMTEL, we are not only integrating one of the leading independent operators of telecommunications infrastructure in Portugal. We are also committed to consistent growth in Europe, integrating an eighth market - which naturally extends the current geographical coverage of the seven countries in which we are already present", says Tobias Martínez, CEO of Cellnex.

The management of the Spanish company has also indicated that it wants to strengthen OMTEL's network with an additional 350 sites by 2027, for an investment of 140 million euros.

An investment outburst that does not seem to frighten Cellnex. Since its IPO in 2015, the company has announced that it has committed no less than 12 billion euros of investment for the acquisition or construction until 2027 of around 48,000 telecommunications infrastructures in addition to the 10,000 or so that the company had at its disposal at the time. Its portfolio thus amounts to a total of 58,000 sites.

Cellnex's appetite also extends to France. After acquiring no less than 3,000 sites belonging to Bouygues Telecom in 2017 for a total of 800 million euros, the Spanish ogre finalised at the end of last year the acquisition of 70% of Iliad TowerCo, which operates some 5,700 mobile telecommunications sites in France, for a deal valued at 2 billion euros.

2 billion. The transaction with Free, which also included the sale of 100% of Free's Italian infrastructure subsidiary and 90% of Salt's antennas, enabled Cellnex to increase its number of masts from 3,000 mobile telecommunications sites to more than 8,000 sites in France.

This is enough to make the competition shudder, given that Hivory claims a fleet of more than 10,000 sites and TDF's fleet peaks at 13,900 sites.

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Source : ZDNet