New JV, called VodafoneZiggo, unifies communications in Dutch market; combines mobile and fixed telephony with home broadband and video services.
Liberty Global and Vodafone Group announced that Liberty Global Europe Holding and Vodafone International Holdings completed a transaction to combine their Dutch operations.
The joint venture will operate under both the Vodafone and Ziggo brands, and will look to create a nationwide integrated communications provider with 7.1 million homes passed by Ziggo’s broadband network and Vodafone Netherlands’ LTE infrastructure. VodafoneZiggo currently has nearly 15 million revenue generating units, of which 4 million are video, 3.1 million are high-speed broadband, 2.5 million are fixed line telephony and 5.2 million are mobile.
“This joint venture is great news for Dutch consumers and businesses. VodafoneZiggo will be the most innovative provider of converged communications services in the Netherlands with a full suite of market-leading TV, broadband, fixed line and mobile products on day one of the JV,” said Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries.
“The merged operation will be a stronger competitor in the Netherlands – one of our core European markets – and is a further example of Vodafone’s ability to create value for its customers and shareholders through an effective market-by-market convergence strategy,” added Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao.
Wind Tre launches operations in Italy
The merged Italian operation of VimpelCom and CK Hutchison started offering services under the combined “Wind Tre” brand.
The firm, which combines the businesses of Wind Telecomunicazioni and 3 Italia, currently has around 31 million subscribers, just ahead of rival operators Telecom Italia and Vodafone. The new entity also serves 2.7 million customers in the fixed line segment.
As part of the deal, Wind and 3 Italia agreed to sell spectrum and network assets to French company Iliad, which allowed it to launch a mobile virtual network operator service in Italy. Wind Tre confirmed plans to invest 7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) in its operations over the next few years.