Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 Sign UK Network Sharing Agreement

Mobile network operators Vodafone and O2 (Virgin Media) have today announce a new 10-year network sharing agreement. Crucially, the deal also includes a provision for Vodafone’s proposed merger with Three UK (aka – MergeCo), which will enable the merged company to “participate” in the same network sharing deal and divest some radio spectrum to O2.

In case anybody has forgotten, O2 and Vodafone originally established a 50:50 network sharing agreement – via Cornerstone (CTIL) – all the way back in 2012, which has helped to support the roll-out of 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) services. But this has already been through quite a lot of changes as the operators have moved to commercialise their mast (tower) sites.

The recently proposed mega-merger between Three UK and Vodafone (here), which is currently going through the final phase of a tedious competition review (here), has also thrown up a new complication for the network sharing deal, which today’s deal helps to resolve (although unpicking EE and Three UK’s separate network sharing agreement is another matter).

Breaking news.. more to follow..

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