Telephone it’s been years modernizing its copper network to replace it with FTTH. The plan is that by 2025 there will be no home in Spain with a copper connection, where the vast majority will have replaced by fiber optics. Other homes will switch to using fixed wireless networks with access points through 4G and 5G, but there are still many homes that have only copper. Now, that modernization seems that it will be carried out by another company.
Telefónica is in the process of divestment. Yesterday we learned that it sold 60% of its fiber subsidiary in Colombia to KKR, and a few hours ago we learned that it has sold its subsidiary in El Salvador for 121 million euros. Now the operator has agreed sell a part of his copper network for 200 million euros, freeing you from having to invest in upgrading this outdated infrastructure.
1.3 million households still have ADSL
Currently, in Spain there are around 1.3 million households who continue to use the ADSL as a fixed connection, although the figure is falling by tens of thousands every quarter. The FTTH is the main fixed network access technology in our country, already having more than 12.5 million households. From them, 4.8 million They have contracted the line with Movistar. In the case of ADSL, Movistar now only has 750,000 lines.
By the end of 2021, there were already more than 1,400 ADSL centrals have entered the end of warranty period. End of 2022, there will be more than 2,200 ADSL exchanges that they are going to close compared to the 4,500 that came to be in Spain. By the end of 2025, almost 3,000 will have closed, and a third of those that once existed will be operational.
In this process, Telefónica has already dismantled 65,000 tons of copper until August, which it has resold to recover the cost, in addition to having reduced energy consumption thanks to the fact that the fiber equipment consumes much less energy. Fiber equipment also takes up less space.
Macquarie will upgrade that network from copper to FTTH
That Telefónica has sold part of that copper network to Macquarie does not mean that the ADSL network stop upgrading. This private Australian company will now be in charge of it. This company already has experience in the field, since it is the largest shareholder of Onivia, which has a fiber network that reaches 2.1 million households and they have 8,400 kilometers of cable deployed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6825mZukuCE
The creation of Onivia took place in 2020, after Macquarie and Aberdeen buy a part of the MásMóvil fiber network, which reaches 940,000 households. Later, they acquired other 1.1 million accesses for 400 million euros. Now, they pay half for a similar figure from Movistar, although they will have to invest to modernize that network.
Once the background has modernized this network to fiber optics, will rent the accesses to the operators. With this, they guarantee a long-term income stream, with a telecommunications infrastructure that offers secure and stable profitability. That is why there are many funds behind acquiring both fixed and mobile networks, which also helps operators reduce their short-term debt in exchange for selling these infrastructures, and thus clean up their accounts.