The deal with Bouygues for an initial 230 telecom towers stipulates the ultimate acquisition of up to 500 sites
Spanish wireless infrastructure operator Cellnex Telecom announced plans to enter the French market with the acquisition of 230 telecommunications towers from French telco Bouygues Telecom.
Cellnex confirmed that the acquisition will require a total investment of 80 million euros ($88.4 million).
The agreement between the two companies stipulates that Cellnex could acquire up to 500 towers in a second phase, which is already under evaluation.
“The agreement with Bouygues Telecom is the beginning of a long-term collaboration with this operator of telecommunications services in France. We trust that this agreement opens the door to extend it in the future to other areas such as construction of new towers on demand (Build to Suit), or the deployment of new technologies based on the ‘small cells’ for the mobile broadband extension,” Cellnex Telecom’s CEO Tobias Martinez said. “This deal strengthens our European scope and thus our ability for building a partnership with customers operating in different European markets to whom we can offer telecom connectivity solutions.”
Cellnex said that the 230 towers included in this initial phase of the deal are spread throughout France, mainly in rural and suburban areas, with a small percentage in urban areas of the country.
Bouygues Telecom currently owns a portfolio of 15,000 sites across the country. Cellnex’s portfolio currently comprises more than 16,100 sites across Europe. The firm operates in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
Etisalat launches VoLTE in the UAE
United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm Etisalat has launched voice-over-LTE services for both prepaid and postpaid mobile customers.
The telco said this new technology will improve the quality of voice and video calls. Initially, the VoLTE service will be available on Samsung mobile devices.
Etisalat’s 4G LTE network currently covers 95% of the population of the UAE. Etisalat launched commercial LTE services in 2011 through spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands.
