Spanish wholesale fibre provider Onivia is aiming to increase its fibre to the home (FTTH) network to 9 million premises by 2025 and compete with MNOs including Telefonica and Orange, reports business daily Expansion, citing Onivia’s non-executive chair Marieta del Rivero. Onivia describes itself as the first independent and neutral telecommunications operator of FTTH wholesale services in Spain and its goal is to “change the fibre landscape” in the country, said Del Rivero.
Onivia was created in late 2019, when a consortium led by infrastructure fund Macquarie Capital acquired Masmovil’s urban fibre network covering Spain’s five largest cities and their metropolitan areas. The wholesale provider’s current owners – Macquarie Capital (50%), Aberdeen Standard Investments (37%) and Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure (13%) – last month announced another deal to acquire a majority stake in a further 1.1 million FTTH premises in rural areas from Masmovil, allowing Onivia to more than double its footprint to over 2.2 million Spanish homes.
According to the report, Onivia may now set its sights on the fibre footprint of local operator Adamo, which Swedish private equity group EQT is reportedly willing to sell, wholesale fibre company Lyntia (formerly Ufinet Spain) and even the network of Euskaltel, which Masmovil may end up divesting to fund its purchase of the regional operator.
