Telefónica Deutschland is to transfer 7,700 mobile sites to Deutsche Telekom, as integration of its acquired E-Plus business continues.
The operator’s protracted takeover of the former KPN business was finally completed in October last year, which gave Telefónica a 62.1 percent share of the German market.
Telefónica Deutschland will continue to use the sites, which are mainly rooftop based, until the E-Plus infrastructure is fully operational. Following the integration, the operator will have more than 25,000 sites across Germany.
It said said the handover of the assets means it can avoid the costs of dismantling redundant transmitters, from cancelling leases to using expert engineers to take down sites. It said it has factored in the financial impact of the transfer into the synergies it will gain from the €5 billion takeover of E-Plus.
Deutsche Telekom said it will be able to expand its own LTE network much quicker than before by taking over the sites. The acquired sites will be managed by the operator’s Deutsche Funkturm arm, which acquires, plans and manages its base station networks.
Cayetano Carbajo Martín, Chief Technical Officer of Telefónica Deutschland, said: “The agreement with Deutsche Telekom has clear advantages for all concerned. Our efforts for eliminating redundant mobile telecommunications sites will be reduced significantly. In the interest of our customers this allows us an even stronger concentration on the future-oriented LTE roll out.”
Since 2012, both operators have had a limited network sharing programme in place.
Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Technology Head of Telekom Deutschland, said: “With this acquisition of mobile network base stations, we can realise our expansion faster and our customers will benefit from the additional power of the Telekom network even sooner. The collaboration between Telefónica and Telekom in the tower-business, i.e. the joint use of base stations, will also be intensified by this co-operation.”