Deutsche Telekom announced on Monday it has acquired 7,700 mobile towers from Telefonica Deutschland.
The cell si tes are predominantly located on rooftops and have been left redundant following the integration of Telefonica’s network with that of E-Plus, which the former acquired from KPN in 2014 for €5 billion in cash plus a 20.5% stake in the merged entity.
Offloading the towers saves Telefonica the expense of decommissioning them and increases Deutsche Telekom’s mobile network coverage to more than 25,000 sites.
"The agreement with Deutsche Telekom has clear advantages for all concerned," said Cayetano Carbajo Martin, CTO of Telefonica Deutschland, in a statement. "Our efforts for eliminating redundant mobile telecommunication sites will be reduced significantly. In the interest of our customers this allows us an even stronger concentration on future-oriented LTE rollout."
According to Deutsche Telekom, decommissioning redundant sites takes time, money, and personnel. Property leases also have to be cancelled and the equipment dismantled.
In addition, the German incumbent said the deal will strengthen the network-sharing deal established by the two operators in 2012.
"With this acquisition of mobile network base stations, we can realise our expansion even faster and our customers will benefit from the additional power of the Telekom network even sooner," said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, head of technology at Deutsche Telekom.
Both parties agreed to maintain confidentiality regarding the financial details, Deutsche Telekom said.
