MADRID, July 2 (Reuters) - Spain's biggest telecoms companyTelefonica signed an agreement with rivals Vodafone and Orange on Tuesday, granting them access toits fibre optic network to roll out faster broadband forcustomers.
Vodafone and Orange will make a one-off payments onindividual installations to share them for no less than 20 yearsand Spain's telecoms regulator CMT will set prices, the threecompanies said in a statement. They gave no further details ofthe payments.
The agreement is reciprocal for the three firms, though asTelefonica's fibre network currently reaches over 2 millionhomes the deal is more attractive immediately for Vodafone andOrange.
Telefonica said in return, when these companies roll outtheir own networks where Telefonica does not have coverage, itwill ask to share them.
Vodafone and Orange, which in April had asked the CMT tointervene in talks with Telefonica over fibre optic connectionsinto individual homes, teamed up earlier this year to build afibre optic network offering fast broadband speeds.
Both companies plan to invest up to 1 billion euros ($1.30billion) in their joint network that will bring fibre optic to 6million homes.
In recession-hit Spain, where 27 percent of the workforce isunemployed, telecoms operators face tough competition as theyslash prices and try to hold on to customers.
In this cut-throat environment, so-called quad play packages- combining fixed line, mobile, internet and televisionservices - have become popular, though competitors cannot matchTelefonica's across-the-board offerings or its fibre footprint.
At the end of 2012, only 252,388 of Spain's 9 millionresidential broadband internet connections were via fibre to thehome, according to data from the CMT.($1 = 0.7672 euros) (Reporting by Clare Kane; Editing by Julien Toyer and JaneMerriman)
Vodafone (VOD)
