ONO (Spain) - History

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.