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With the deal now rubberstamped by the European Commission, the operators hope to close the deal by September
This week, the European Commission has announced that it has given its approval for the creation of Vodafone and Altice’s new German broadband firm, FiberCo.
According to the Commission, the creation of FiberCo will not damage competition in the German fibre market, with the Commission noting “limited horizontal overlaps and vertical links between the companies’ activities in the relevant markets”.
The deal to create FiberCo was first announced back in October, with the companies committing to investing €7 billion in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments over the next six years.
In total, the FiberCo aims to cover seven million homes by 2029, with around 80% of the rollout focussed on upgrading housing associations that currently use Vodafone’s hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network to FTTH. The remaining 20% will target neighbouring homes outside of Vodafone’s current footprint.
Vodafone’s HFC network currently covers around 25 million premises in Germany.
According to Vodafone Deutschland CEO Philippe Rogge, the partners hope to bring FiberCo’s first customers online “before the end of this year”.
Previously, the companies have suggested that the deal will formally close before September this year.
How is the German fibre landscape evolving in 2023? Catch up with all of the year’s hottest topics in the telecoms industry at Connected Germany 2023
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