# Network Tower Sharing Analysis in Greece: A Structure-Conduct-Performance Approach
## 3 Results
### Performance
They were released from a large amount of debt related with their mobile network expansion, improving in parallel their financial performance, aiming: (i) to raise directly funding from stock exchange markets and the banking sector, which was planned to be mainly invested in the construction of broadband networks including both mobile and fixed optical networks expansion. As explained in previous sections, alternative MNOs after being released from a large amount of debt associated with their network expansion, increased their liquidity at minimum cost, (ii) to be more attractive for mergers and/or acquisitions by strategic partners/investors, for creating advanced enterprise schemes, with more sustainable competitive advantages, in terms of operational, technical, financial competences, etc. This is part of an overall MNO strategy aiming to provide them a lead the day after, increasing their overall market share and configuring a new market structure with those following this strategy on top. In that respect, a telecom conglomerate United Group announced in September 2022 plans to invest $2 billion worth of investments in Greece up to 2027 for the installation of a 10-gigabit optical-fiber network that will cover 4.5 million people and enterprises. At the beginning of the same year (i.e., January 2022), United Group took over Wind Hellas after EU clearance, aiming to consolidate in its portfolio of services WIND's fixed and mobile telecommunications services. In addition, two years ago, the United Group also acquired  
Figure 3: Investments (million) and investments as a percentage of turnover. the Greek telecommunications and pay-TV provider, Forthnet, for acquiring fixed and pay-TV service capabilities in its portfolio, too. At the end of March 2022, United Group had total debts exceeding 5.3 billion euros (bond loans, leases, etc. ), an amount that is significantly increased compared to 4.0 billion euros a year ago. This increase in debts is attributed to a new loan of the group for acquiring Wind Hellas (980 million euros) and Optima Telekom in Croatia. Additionally, Wind Hellas also established in Greece a new Fiber Co. (Athens, Greece) in 2021, namely Hellenic Open Fiber. This conduct was attributed to an overall strategic plan of WIND to create separate infrastructure companies, aiming for them to be open-access wholesale service providers to third parties. In that respect, the new company would undertake the setup of the optical infrastructure for fixed telephony, while WIND would retain only the active equipment serving its mobile network. Summing up, the above-described case study of Wind Hellas reveals that it has indeed employed a long-term infrastructure-sharing policy, starting from its initial involvement in Victus Networks, passing to Vantage Towers and now to Hellenic Openfiber, as part of an overall strategy to save funds and improve its financial performance, reducing debt. In this way, it managed to be more attractive for an acquisition by a larger company. As a result, it finally became part of the European conglomerate, namely United Group. The final enterprise scheme, i.e., after the takeover, performs an improved fundraising capacity, while in parallel, there is a strategic focus on the development of fixed broadband networks through Hellenic Openfiber. Looking at the big picture, there is an overall trend at the EU level (including Greece) for MNOs to separate infrastructure ownership and/or management from telecom service provisioning. In that respect, new TowerCos and FiberCos arise, which are usually connected in some way with MNOs. By sharing infrastructure, TowerCos/FiberCos provide the chance to MNOs to significantly decrease their infrastructure costs, since less passive infrastructure addresses more tenants per tower/optical fiber, and thus sustain profit margins.