Vodafone may enter German DSL market
10 March 2006
Vodafone may enter German DSL market
German fixed line operator Arcor - majority owned by Vodafone - said on Thursday that its future is uncertain after a senior Vodafone executive hinted at a merger of the companies.
Speaking at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany yesterday, Vodafone Germany chief executive, Friedrich Joussen, suggested it was possible there would be an integration between mobile operator Vodafone Germany and fixed line operator Arcor in the future.
An Arcor spokesman refused to comment on the possibility of a merger, but said: "Several times now Vodafone has said that Arcor is not part of the company's core business. But so far there are no plans for a sale."
Arcor is 74 per cent owned by Vodafone Group, with minority shareholders Deutsche Bahn owning 18 per cent and Deutsche Bank 8 per cent.
On the back of rumours that Vodafone may offload its Arcor stake, Spanish operator Telefonica and France Telecom are both believed to be considering separate bids in excess of Eur2bn (£1.4bn).
Earlier this week, Arcor said that EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) in the nine months to the end of December 2005 jumped 39 per cent year on year to Eur219m, while sales increased 20 per cent year on year to Eur1.402bn on the back of strong growth in the DSL space.
Arcor is also understood to be considering expanding its operations to build out its own fibre network Germany cities. However, the Arcor spokesman said these plans are not concrete and largely depend on how Deutsche Telekom's spat with the European Commission progresses.
Last September Deutsche Telekom announced a Eur3bn investment programme to give customers access to bandwidths of up to 50Mbps, but in return the incumbent requested exemption from competition regulation for up to three years. While the German regulator has been receptive to this proposal, the European Commission last month intervened in an attempt to enforce competition.
"Ideally, we need access to the fibre network of Deutsche Telekom," the Arcor spokesman said.
To comment on any articles, please contact us at chatback@telecoms.com or have your say on our blog.
Bookmark this page
