The Council of Ministers approves the approval of the merger between equals between Orange and MoreMobile
11/03/2024
The operation gives rise to the first telecommunications operator in Spain, with sufficient scale and capacity to continue guaranteeing that our country has digital infrastructures of the highest level. The resulting group is committed to implementing an ambitious medium-term investment plan for fixed and mobile networks and the operational management of such networks. With this, Spain will continue to be a European leader in connectivity, with the positive effects it has for citizens and companies, and its competitive position, and the promotion of technological development in the country.
The Council of Ministers has approved the peer-to-peer merger operation by combining the Spanish businesses of Orange and MáMóvil.La a new joint venture will be the first operator in Spain by market share as it will serve more than 30 million mobile customers, more than 7 million broadband customers and more than 2 million television customers. In addition, investors have voluntarily submitted in the authorisation process an ambitious Industrial, Strategic and Financial Plan, including commitments to make large investments in fixed and mobile infrastructure, which could not be achieved on such a scale without the proposed operation.
The Government has authorized the operation that was favourably reported by the Foreign Investment Board last week, following scrutiny of the operation required by the Foreign Investment regulations.
In addition, the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, through the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, has also authorised the new joint entity to take control of the radio spectrum concessions held by Orange and MoreMóvil.Dado that the fusion between equals exceeds the frequency limits to be used by the same operator or business group, the so-called spectrum caps, the procedure provided for in Article 88.6 of the Regulation on the use of the public radio domain is applied, which gives a period of five months from the closing of the transaction, with the possibility of new frequency limits to be adjusted. Any transfer of this surplus spectrum, including the 60 MHz destined for Digi according to the decision of the European Commission, will have to be previously approved by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service.
The resulting group is committed to implementing an ambitious medium-term investment plan for fixed and mobile networks and the operational management of these networks. The operation and the commitments accepted ensure the continuity of investment in new generation networks, which will contribute to the fact that, thanks to the deployment of fiber and 5G networks, Spain continues to be the European leader in connectivity, with the positive effects that this can have for the attraction of investors or population fixation in rural areas, among other aspects.
The Spanish Government has approved this operation, which assumes the existence of a new actor with the necessary financial capacity and size to compete efficiently and sustainably in the Spanish telecommunications market, a strategic market for the economy and security of the country, which will benefit Spanish consumers and companies by having a wider portfolio of products and services.