Cellnex closes the acquisition of 230 telecommunication towers to Bouygues Telecom

This is the first phase of the agreement announced in July that includes an extension to 500 towers

   Cellnex Telecom today closed the first phase of the agreement announced last July for the acquisition of a package of 230 telecommunications towers to Bouygues Telecom in France. The investment, of 80 million euros, opens the doors to the French market and consolidates its profile as an independent operator of wireless telecommunications infrastructures with European coverage. Cellnex and Bouygues are already working on the second phase of the agreement in July, which contemplates a possible extension to 500 towers.

   As pointed out by Tobías Martínez, CEO of Cellnex at the time of announcing this first agreement with Bouygues Telecom, "This is the beginning of a long-term collaboration that opens the door to other areas of interest such as the construction of new sites to demand (Build to Suit) or the deployment of new technologies based on small cells for mobile broadband. We reinforce our European reach and with it the capacity to build agreements and alliances with clients that operate in different European countries to which we can offer connectivity solutions for telecommunications ».

The agreement with Bouygues Telecom

The first phase of the agreement reached with Bouygues Telecom, signed today, involves the acquisition and integration of 230 wireless data transmission and mobile telephony transmission sites. The operation, which represents an investment of 80 million euros, opens a long-term collaboration with one of the main mobile telephony operators in France. The acquisition of this portfolio of towers is accompanied by a service contract from Cellnex to Bouygues Telecom that extends for a period of 20 years.

The aforementioned towers are distributed throughout the French territory, mostly in rural and suburban areas, with a small percentage in urban areas. In a second phase, which is expected to close before next December 31, this initial package of 230 towers can be extended to 500.

Bouygues Telecom is, by turnover, the third largest mobile operator in France. It currently has a portfolio of 11,000 transmission sites. The French company has begun in recent years a progressive process of separation and sale of its non-strategic infrastructure assets, in line with the trend of outsourcing and operation of these by neutral and independent operators such as Cellnex Telecom.

The French market

France has 56,000 of the 330,000 sites for telecommunication signaling deployed in Western Europe. Just over 20% of the total sites are managed by independent operators.

With an AA rating of S & P and Fitch, France is in full deployment in the territory of 4G mobile broadband, reaching coverage ranging from 60% to just over 75% of the population according to the operator. Deployment, which, as in other European countries, is being carried out on the basis of existing sites for 2G and 3G.

The improvement of coverage and mobile access to broadband content in areas with a large number of simultaneous users is one of the challenges of the future and a priority. In this sense, the deployment of networks with high density and capillarity, small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS in English) will be some of the vectors of the growth of the French market in the coming years.