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Deal transforms Orange Moldova into a converged services provider.
Orange Moldova late on Wednesday agreed to acquire local cable provider Sun Communications.
Sun Communications offers digital and cable TV services under the SunTV brand to its 100,000 active customers in Balti, Cahul, and the capital city Chisinau. Sun also provides VoIP and up to 300-Mbps fixed broadband services to 38,000 subscribers.
Orange meanwhile is Moldova’s largest mobile operator, with 2 million customers and a 4G network covering 84% of the population.
Wednesday’s deal is subject to approval from competition authorities; financial terms were not disclosed.
"The Orange ambition is to reinforce its position as the leading convergent operator in Europe providing fixed broadband, fixed and mobile voice services as well as pay TV services. The acquisition of Sun Communications in Moldova is part of this strategy," Orange said, in a statement.
Indeed, Orange has been making steady progress in growing its fixed-line business at group level. At the end of the first quarter, the group’s fixed-line customer base stood at 43.29 million, up from 42.49 million a year earlier. The growth was primarily driven by fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriptions, which increased to 2.23 million from 830,000.
Meanwhile, over the same 12-month period, Orange’s TV customer base grew to 8.18 million from 7.41 million
