TPG hooks up with Optus in $1.6b deal after Telstra hang up
In 2022 TPG said it wouldn't be interested in working with Optus on an infrastructure sharing agreement just like the one the pair announced today.
In business as in life, time heals all wounds. A CEO change evidently helps too. On Monday Optus and TPG announced a $1.6 billion infrastructure sharing deal. It will see Optus gain access to some of TPG’s spectrum, and TPG to some of Optus’ regional network. The result is that TPG gets better service in rural Australia, while Optus’ 5G will be boosted.
“This network sharing arrangement will reset the competitive landscape for mobile services in regional areas and provide Australians with more choice than ever before,” said TPG CEO Iñaki Berroeta.
That is a far different tone to the one struck by TPG in 2022. Back then, TPG had a similar deal with Telstra which Optus' lobbied the ACCC to block. TPG at the time indicated it would have no interest in sharing infrastructure with Optus in place of the market leader.
“Having had the benefit of seeing the proposed transaction and its terms, Optus wishes to use the authorisation process to remove Telstra as a competitor,” a letter from TPG’s lawyers sent to the ACCC in 2022 reads, “and leave it free to impose a less attractive, alternative transaction on TPG.”
