Orange seeks FTTH partners in Poland
Orange Polska is to create a company to increase fibre roll-out in the country and is looking for investment partners.
The incumbent announced its intentions in a report on the company website, in which it said it had ‘initiated a review of options for a potential partnership into further fibre roll-out through a co-controlled vehicle (FiberCo).’
The firm confirmed that it is contemplating big market potential and interest, and launched a review of related options which covers five characteristics.
The first is to create a ‘FiberCo’ vehicle to roll-out an FTTH access network to about 1.7m Polish households. This will focus predominantly on areas without fast broadband infrastructure.
Secondly, Orange Polska will contribute approximately 0.6m of its existing FTTH footprint (this is assumed to include wholesale access for about 0.15 clients) to the new company. Next, open access to this network will be granted to Orange Polska and other operators. The fourth characteristic is explained to be the use of Orange Polska as ‘FiberCo’s’ main industrial partner for network roll-out, delivery, maintenance and connectivity. Finally will be the sale by Orange Polska of a co-controlling stake of the company to an investor.
Orange Polska also stated however, that it wished to point that these are preliminary project parameters, which may evolve during the process.
