Following the news that O2 Slovakia has completed the acquisition of UPC Broadband Slovakia from Liberty Global;

Natasha Rybak, Principal Analyst of Telecoms Practice, Technology at GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, offers her view:

“The takeover of UPC Broadband, which can serve around 600,000 premises across almost 80 Slovakian cities, will give a much-needed leg up to O2 Slovakia’s efforts to shore up its fixed services and digital television capabilities and move closer to its ambition of becoming a preferred telco provider of convergent fixed, mobile, and content multiplay services for Slovakian households.

“Although O2 Slovakia has been marketing home internet and TV products using fixed wireless access (FWA) as an alternative for some years, the legacy mobile operator has not been able to make much of dent in the country’s multiplay segment against integrated fixed and mobile competitors like Slovak Telecom and Orange Slovakia.

“While it has done well in building up recognition as a prominent cellular mobile provider, O2 Slovakia has found it more challenging to make inroads with residential internet and TV services. To bridge this gap, the company acquired UPC Slovakia and its home broadband and TV portfolio from cable giant Liberty Global.

“Folding the UPC assets into its existing consumer telco business will boost O2 Slovakia’s ability to compete effectively in the multiplay segment and exploit the inherent operational and sales synergies that can only realistically be had by operators with both fixed and mobile assets at their disposal.

“For O2 Slovakia’s owner, the e&-controlled joint venture e& PPF Telecom Group, the addition of UPC infrastructure to its patchwork of telco interests spanning Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia will add more weight to the company’s efforts to dig in and enlarge its foothold in the CEE telco market, further expanding the UAE-based e&’s commercial presence beyond its carrier hub anchored in the Middle East.”