Once the deals clinched, the operators will be able to either launch fixed services (Orange and Vodafone) or gain access to 3G and 4G mobile networks without investing tens of millions of euros in their own infrastructure (RCS&RDS and Telekom).
Several telecom industry sources familiar with the talks told ZF that the negotiations yielded three alliance options: Orange and Telekom, Vodafone and Telekom and Vodafone and RCS&RDS.
The Telekom group (former Cosmote and Romtelecom) is not in talks with its archrival RCS&RDS – because this is the only competitor capable of offering a full fixed-mobile service package, while Orange did not approach RCS&RDS because of the latter’s contractual relationship with Vodafone.
Beyond the three options discussed, Orange and Vodafone are conducting talks of their own, to expand the mobile network sharing partnership to the fixed service area. If they reach an agreement, they will be taking on rivals at Telekom and RCS&RDS by building their own infrastructure.
The four make more than EUR3 billion revenue a year together.
The negotiations held by small teams (the local chief executive officers and top management) have already reached the phase where the parties are coming up with business scenarios and calculations done by consultants. A decision might be made in a matter of months, ZF has learnt.
In some cases the projects even received codenames. One such codename is Apolodor, a project that would have Orange provide national 3G and 4G roaming to Telekom Mobil (Cosmote), while Telekom Fix (former Romtelecom) should provide Orange with one million landlines for business customers, sources close to the talks said.
“The Orange-Telekom sharing project is there, but has not been signed therefore has not begun yet,” another industry insider said.
No agreement has been reached so far, and once reached, it will have to be approved by the headquarters of the multinationals, a third source told ZF.
“Everyone is in talks with everyone for the time being. We cannot yet tell who will sign with whom.”
What would the impact of such partnerships be? The business and public sector customers – an urgent matter that Orange and Vodafone need to address, should receive a full fixed-mobile service offer at competitive prices from the two mobile phone operators, since the two would have access to landline infrastructure at lower rates than they do now.
As for the consumer segment, Orange might add fixed Internet and cable TV services provided by Telekom to its offer, while Telekom could start offering 3G/4G services to customers in parts of the country only covered by Orange’s infrastructure. Vodafone could provide service packages via the RCS&RDS network, while the latter could start providing 4G services via the former’s infrastructure.
RCS&RDS and Vodafone did not answer ZF’s questions on the subject, while Orange and Telekom said no comment.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)