Millicom (News - Alert), an international telecommunications and media company, and Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), a fixed line and wireless operator, completed negotiations regarding structure and major terms for combining their  mobile, TV, broadband and telephony businesses.  

It is expected that this combination will help Millicom’s transformation into a diversified digital player and will help to reap higher revenues and profits in Colombia.

The combined offering creates a digital lifestyle company that will deliver a comprehensive range of bundled digital services for subscribers. The services include mobile and fixed telephony, mobile and fixed broadband and payTV.

 The collaboration will take advantage of the complementary geographic coverage that the companies possess and the commercial offerings of EPM’s UNE and Millicom’s Tigo.

This combination was selected based on the sustained growth factors exhibited by the Colombian economy. The telecommunications and media sectors are growing fast and there exists a favorable business climate in Colombia which is one of the best performing economies in Latin America.

Since Colombia is a large market for Millicom, it is more viable to boost business here. About 55 percent of the Colombian people are aged below 30 years and will be the target population for the digital lifestyle services, as the market represents early adopters of new technologies. Millicom can also find suitable and employable young people here, said officials.

Now Millicom can successfully follow its strategy to deploy fixed/mobile convergence solutions. The company’s customer-centric approach offers optimum access and content at home or while traveling.

The pay TV market will also grow as the number of homes receiving content and entertainment from Millicom/Tigo increase.

The integrated company will serve more than 8.4 million connections encompassing households and mobile customers.

Recently, Une-EPM took full control of fellow municipal operator Pereira Telecommunications Company (ETP) in order to simplify its group structure. This is in anticipation of the planned merger with Millicom-owned cellular market rival Tigo.