Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has authorised the sale of the Cyfrowy Polsat subsidiary Polkomtel Infrastruktura to Cellnex Poland.
In a statement, UOKiK says that the activities of the merging parties overlap in the provision (hosting) of passive telecommunications infrastructure used for the provision of mobile network services. Passive infrastructure includes, in particular, telecommunications towers and masts.
It adds that in this case, it conducted a market survey in which it sent enquiries to mobile network operators – Orange Polska, T-Mobile Polska and P4. Polska Tower also presented its position in the case on its own initiative. In addition, Tomasz Chróstny, president of the UOKiK, asked for an opinion of the president of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE).
The analysis conducted UOKiK showed that although Cellnex Poland will own more than 50% of the telecommunications masts used by mobile networks in Poland after the acquisition of Polkomtel Infrastruktura, the concentration will not lead to a restriction of competition. A similar opinion was presented by the president of the UKE, Jacek Oko.
As previously reported by Broadband TV News, in March Cyfrowy Polsat agreed to sell its subsidiary Polkomtel Infrastruktura to Cellnex Poland, a subsidiary of Spain’s Cellnex Telecom, for PLN7.07 billion (€1.56 billion).
