ONO (Spain)
Encyclopedia
ONO is a Spanish
broadband
communication and entertainment company, delivering integrated telephone, television and Internet services to its residential customers. In this segment, it has 3.7 million services contracted and over six million users.
ONO was incorporated in 1998. Before commencing its operations, the company took part in a series of competitive tenders which were called after the coming into force of Spain's General Telecommunications by Cable Act 42/95. From 1996 to 1998, ONO was awarded the licenses to provide cable television and telecommunications services in the regions of Valencia
, Castellon
, Alicante
, Murcia
, Cádiz
, Huelva
, Cantabria
, Majorca and Albacete
.
As the company rolled out its own latest-generation network across its regions, users started to enjoy its TV, telephone and Internet services. By the end of 2002, ONO was already present in approximately one in every three homes prepared to receive its services. A year later, it was awarded the license to operate in Castile-La Mancha
and, in 2004, it acquired the telecommunications operator Retecal, covering Castile and León
, Spain’s second largest region by geographical area.
In November 2005, ONO closed the acquisition of 100% of the telecoms company Auna Tlc, thereby consolidating its presence as Spain's leading broadband communications and entertainment company and extending its services to the communities of Aragon
, Andalusia
(excluding Cadiz and Huelva, which already belonged to ONO), the Canary Islands
, Catalonia
, La Rioja
, Madrid
and Navarra.
Services available to clients with cable access as of September 30, 2008 are as follows:
ONO has rolled out its own cable network in Spain. In areas where the operator does not offer its proprietary infrastructure, ONO offers phone and Internet service through ULL technology.
In the wake of the acquisition of Auna, ONO received the support of venture capital firms (JP Morgan Partners, Providence Equity, Thomas H.Lee Company, GE Capital Services Structures Finance Group, Inc., Quadrangle Group).
ONO's broad range of business services can be best summarized as follows:
ONO has launched ONO io, the first fixed-mobile convergent phone in Spain for all its residential customers. It offers new smart mobile terminals that allow access to both fixed (at home) and mobile (outdoors) networks, but has discontinued making new contracts for the time being.
, it's possible to enjoy different contents on different TV sets throughout the home.
ONO also offers OJO, a VoD
service.
In paid-TV services:
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
communication and entertainment company, delivering integrated telephone, television and Internet services to its residential customers. In this segment, it has 3.7 million services contracted and over six million users.
ONO was incorporated in 1998. Before commencing its operations, the company took part in a series of competitive tenders which were called after the coming into force of Spain's General Telecommunications by Cable Act 42/95. From 1996 to 1998, ONO was awarded the licenses to provide cable television and telecommunications services in the regions of Valencia
Valencia (province)
Valencia or València is a province of Spain, in the central part of the Valencian Community.It is bordered by the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Cuenca, Teruel, Castellón, and the Mediterranean Sea...
, Castellon
Castellón de la Plana
Castellón de la Plana or Castelló de la Plana is the capital city of the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Community, Spain, in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Azahar by the Mediterranean Sea...
, Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
, Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
, Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, Huelva
Huelva
Huelva is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous region of Andalusia. It is located along the Gulf of Cadiz coast, at the confluence of the Odiel and Tinto rivers. According to the 2010 census, the city has a population of 149,410 inhabitants. The...
, Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
, Majorca and Albacete
Albacete
Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009....
.
As the company rolled out its own latest-generation network across its regions, users started to enjoy its TV, telephone and Internet services. By the end of 2002, ONO was already present in approximately one in every three homes prepared to receive its services. A year later, it was awarded the license to operate in Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...
and, in 2004, it acquired the telecommunications operator Retecal, covering Castile and León
Castile and León
Castile and León is an autonomous community in north-western Spain. It was so constituted in 1983 and it comprises the historical regions of León and Old Castile...
, Spain’s second largest region by geographical area.
In November 2005, ONO closed the acquisition of 100% of the telecoms company Auna Tlc, thereby consolidating its presence as Spain's leading broadband communications and entertainment company and extending its services to the communities of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
, Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
(excluding Cadiz and Huelva, which already belonged to ONO), the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, La Rioja
La Rioja (Spain)
La Rioja is an autonomous community and a province of northern Spain. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Nájera.-History:...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and Navarra.
Company background
According to data from its web page, at the end of First Quarter of 2008, ONO had 1.8 million clients and it has rolled out a next generation network that covers over 6,850,000 homes and business. During the last 12 months, the company has released a total of 414,000 new households, an increase of 6.4% year-over-year.Services available to clients with cable access as of September 30, 2008 are as follows:
- Fixed telephony: 1,623,000
- Internet: 1,272,000
- Television: 1,057,000
ONO has rolled out its own cable network in Spain. In areas where the operator does not offer its proprietary infrastructure, ONO offers phone and Internet service through ULL technology.
Shareholders' structure
ONO's main shareholders:- Multitel (21%)
- CCMP CapitalCCMP CapitalCCMP Capital is a private equity investment firm that focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions. Formerly known as JP Morgan Partners, the investment professionals of JP Morgan Partners separated from JPMorgan Chase on July 31, 2006. CCMP has invested approximately $12 billion...
(15.2%) - Providence Equity PartnersProvidence Equity PartnersProvidence Equity Partners is a global private equity investment firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments...
(15.2%) - Thomas H. Lee PartnersThomas H. Lee PartnersThomas H. Lee Partners is a private equity firm based in Boston, Massachusetts specializing in leveraged buyouts, growth capital, special situations, industry consolidations, and recapitalizations....
(15.2%) - Quadrangle GroupQuadrangle GroupQuadrangle Group is a private investment firm focused on private equity. The firm invests in middle-market companies within the media, communications and information-based sectors....
(9.1%) - Grupo SantanderGrupo SantanderThe Santander Group is a banking group centered on Banco Santander, S.A., the largest bank in the Eurozone and one of the largest banks in the world in terms of market capitalisation. According to Forbes Magazine Global 2000, it is the 13th largest public company in the world...
(4.5%) - GE Structured FinanceGeneral ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
(8.9%) - Caisse de dépôt et placement du QuébecCaisse de dépôt et placement du QuébecThe Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec manages public pension plans in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly...
(6.7%) - Sodinteleco (4.5%)
History
In 1998 ONO was awarded licences to build its own next generation network in 11 Spanish regions.- In May 2004, ONO acquired Retecal, a cable operator from Castilla y León. Because of its precarious financial situation, ONO decided to help the company with a 30 million euros cash investment so that It could continue operations.
- In August 2005, ONO reached an agreement with Grupo Auna shareholders to acquire its telecommunications unit for €2.2 billion. In November 2005, the acquisition was concluded, with the purchase of Auna's cable unit. Soon after ONO started the integration of both companies, creating Spain’s biggest broadband and entertainment alternative operator to former monopoly, Telefónica.
In the wake of the acquisition of Auna, ONO received the support of venture capital firms (JP Morgan Partners, Providence Equity, Thomas H.Lee Company, GE Capital Services Structures Finance Group, Inc., Quadrangle Group).
- By the end of 2005, ONO started broadcasting the new DTT channels.
- In 2006, ONO had to set an up a redundancy program, affecting around 1,000 workers.
- In December 2006, ONO signs an agreement with Telefónica to use its mobile network, thus becoming a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).
- At the end of 2007, the company launched "ONO io", a convergent fix-mobile phone service.
- In 2008, ONO has announced that it is planning to offer broadband access at 100 Mbit/s using "DOCSIS 3.0" technology protocol. ONO has invested over €9 billion to roll out its network.
- In 2009 ONO has successfully rolled out a 50 Mbit/s connection using DOCSIS 3.0, but only in certain regions of Madrid.
ONO corporate services
ONO offers communications services for business anywhere in Spain.ONO's broad range of business services can be best summarized as follows:
- Telephone services, offering, in addition to basic services (lines, primary services, exchanges and terminals), multiple advanced options. Additionally, with its VoIP services, it seeks to broaden its product range by incorporating multimedia options into everyday communications.
- High-speed broadband services.
- Managed services such as security, hosting, online backup, ASP tools and e-learning, amongst others.
ONO residential services
ONO has provided combined telephone, television and internet services since it commenced operations in 1998. It implements its own latest-generation cable infrastructure, which provides services to more than 1.8 million direct access customers.ONO has launched ONO io, the first fixed-mobile convergent phone in Spain for all its residential customers. It offers new smart mobile terminals that allow access to both fixed (at home) and mobile (outdoors) networks, but has discontinued making new contracts for the time being.
Internet
All Internet customers can surf the web at speeds of :- 2 Mbit/s / 150 kbit/s (only with combined services)
- 3 Mbit/s / 150 kbit/s (only with combined services)
- 6 Mbit/s / 300 kbit/s
- 12 Mbit/s / 500 kbit/s
- 50 Mbit/s / 3 Mbit/s
- 100 Mbit/s / 5 Mbit/s
Television
Thanks to ONO's technology based on Hybrid Fibre-CoaxialHybrid fibre-coaxial
Hybrid fiber-coaxial is a telecommunications industry term for a broadband network which combines optical fibre and coaxial cable. It was commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s.-Description:...
, it's possible to enjoy different contents on different TV sets throughout the home.
ONO also offers OJO, a VoD
VOD
VOD may stand for:*Velocity of detonation, the speed of a shock wave through a detonated explosive*Veno-occlusive disease, a complication of bone marrow transplantation*Versant Object Database, a database management system...
service.
Fixed phone service
ONO offers an all-included package for fixed line customers, with free domestic calls to all fixed line numbers (up to 60 minutes per call). There is no monthly charge for the line rental.Mobile phone service
The mobile market in Spain is open to all operators since February 2006 through the mechanism of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). ONO requested before the CMT (Spanish regulator) a license to operate as an MVNO and signed an agreement with Telefónica to use its mobile network, becoming the fourth operator with a quadruple play offer in Spain: fixed phone, mobile phone, Internet and TV. Other quadruple play operators include Telefónica, Orange and Euskaltel.Main competitors
Fixed telephony and broadband access:- JazztelJazztelJazztel is a telecom that operates in Spain offering triple play services . Jazztel was founded in 1998 by Martin Varsavsky. Jazztel is a Spanish company that is owned by a British company called Jazztel p.l.c. It was incorporated under the laws of England and Wales in July 1998. It is Registered...
- Orange (a France TélécomFrance TélécomFrance Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
company) - Tele2Tele2Tele2 AB is a major European telecommunications operator, with about 34 million customers in 11 countries. It serves as a fixed-line telephone operator, cable television provider, mobile phone operator and Internet service provider.- Overview :...
(recently acquired by VodafoneVodafone SpainVodafone España, S.A.U. is a mobile telecommunications operator in Spain headquartered in Alcobendas, Madrid. The company was founded in 2000, as a result of the merger of the shares held by Vodafone Group plc and British Telecommunications plc in Airtel Móviles, S.A....
) - TelefónicaTelefónicaTelefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
- Ya.com (a former Deutsche TelekomDeutsche TelekomDeutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....
company, recently acquired by France Telecom)
In paid-TV services:
- Digital+ (from SogecableSogecablePRISA Televisión, S.A.U is the leading pay TV company in Spain, created in 1989 and controlled by PRISA. It was the first company to introduce interactive systems and specially Digital Television in Spain...
) - ImagenioImagenioMovistar Imagenio is an IPTV television service provided in Spain operated by Telefonica. The service was started as a commercial pilot test in the city of Alicante on 2002 and later extended to some major cities like Madrid and Barcelona on April 2004....
(Telefónica) - JazzteliaJazzteliaJazztelia is the commercial name of the IPTVtelevision over ADSL service of Spain's Jazztel telecommunications company....
(Jazztel) - Orange TVOrange TVOTV is a publicly-traded television station in Lebanon.It began broadcasting on July 20, 2007 on the Arabsat satellite, on the 11823MHz frequency. OTV Launched officially in 2008 after a testing period of almost six months. OTV now covers the world through different broadcasting channels for...
(Orange)