Euskaltel launches Virgin Telco brand in bid to become Spain’s fourth national operator

Any builder of towers, masts or backhaul infrastructure could get funding as long as they give access to at least four mobile service providers.

Basque-region operator embarks on plan outlined in February to expand nationally and double its 2019 revenues in five years.

Euskaltel operates in northern Spain, with a network covering nearly 2.3 million households. It provides broadband, mobile, TV and fixed lines to residential and business customers.

The company operates under the Euskaltel (Basque Country), R Cable (Galicia) and Telecable (Asturias) brands in the regions they cover. Euskaltel acquired R Cable late in 2015 and Telecable in July 2017.

High fibre

It has now started its campaign to move into the 85% of the Spanish market where it has no presence by riding on others’ infrastructure, just as the converged services operator, Sky, does in the UK – but unlike the UK, Spain has a high level of fibre penetration.

Even so, how realistic are Euskaltel’s ambitions, given Spain is a tough market, as the “big three”, incumbent Telefonica, Orange and Vodafone can attest?

Read our in-depth interview with Eamonn O’Hare, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Zegona, Euskaltel’s UK-based, largest shareholder with a more than 20% holding. Zegona was set up in 2015 by former Virgin Media execs O’Hare and Robert Samuelson.