13 May 2022

Orange Spain saw a 4.6% fall in revenues in the first quarter to €1.13bn billion, castig a shadow over its proposed merger with MásMóvil.

It means there is now a problem with regards to the balance of powers between the parties and the final financial value of the operation due to be completed by June this year.

French firm Orange said tough competition and low cost offers in the market led to losses across all business segments. It reported a 4% fall in consumer revenues, 8.2% in wholesale services and a 3% fall in mobile phone sales.

However, Nevertheless, the number of customers grew by 2.8 per cent on the same period last year to 20.5 million, out of which 16.48 million are mobile subscribers and 4 million broadband customers. FTTH already covers 16.3 million homes and businesses, with 800,000 new units in one year.

Elsewhere, ARPU went down 0.3% in the period versus a 1.8 per cent fall in the last quarter of 2021.

Meanwhile, Cellnex Telecom is talking to Deutsche Telekom about taking over its tower business, CEO Tobías Martínez confirmed at a meeting of investors and analysts. He said Germany is “a very attractive market”. If a deal materialised, Cellnex stands to control 163,000 towers by the end of the decade.

According to reports in late 2021, Deutsche Telekom wants to spin off its tower operation, Deutsche Funkturm, which is believes is worth €20 billion.