Wireless infrastructure firm Cellnex has today extended their existing partnership with UK mobile providers Vodafone and O2 (Virgin Media), which will ensure that both operators continue to have access to share Cellnex’s national tower infrastructure to help deploy 5G (mobile broadband) and future services.
The expected move follows shortly after VMO2 and Vodafone reached a new 10-year network sharing agreement (here), which was necessary in order for Vodafone to satisfy several network and competition concerns related to their separately proposed plan to merge with rival mobile operator Three UK.
However, the official announcement doesn’t include any solid details on what has changed in the new Cellnex agreement, although Vodafone’s proposed merger will inevitably mean some changes.
Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer of Vodafone, said:
“This partnership helps us both expand and maintain our reliable network in all corners of the UK, not only now, but also in the future. We look forward to continuing to work with the team at Cellnex”.
Jeanie York, CTO of Virgin Media O2, said:
“This partnership will help us maintain and upgrade our existing sites across the country and ensure we continue to provide our customers with the fast and reliable mobile connectivity they increasingly rely on as we invest billions of pounds each year in our networks and services”.
At this point it may be worth reminding readers that Cellnex UK also acquired Three UK’s (CK Hutchison’s) mast sites a couple of years ago. The UK transaction between Cellnex and CK Hutchison was formally approved by the CMA on 3rd March 2022, subject to the divestment of around 1,000 of Cellnex’s existing UK sites which overlapped geographically with the CK Hutchison sites to be acquired.