Orange and Vodafone extend UK network sharing
Published: 6 January, 2009
READ MORE: UK | Orange | Vodafone
As operators look to enhance their coverage while also reining in capex spend, network sharing will become an increasingly important trend in 2009. Highlighting this, the UK arms of Orange and Vodafone are looking to expand their existing deal to include sharing the costs of engineering, maintenance and technology.
Savings will be in addition to the economies from their existing agreement to share radio access network (RAN) elements. This deal covers masts, antennas, cell sites, site support cabinets and power supplies plus the transmission links, 2G/3G base stations and radio network controllers that link to the core network.
The expanded arrangement will help Vodafone CEO Vitorio Colao in his bid to cut costs by about £1bn ($1.45bn) a year, and sharing could deliver a major share of those savings in the UK, and possibly be expanded to other territories. Both cellcos have signed up with BT as their backhaul partner for the coming five years.
Scottish National Party member of parliament, Angus MacNeil, plans to propose that Vodafone and Orange are mandated to use their sharing deal to improve coverage in the remote Scottish islands - the main area that still suffers poor 3G service in the UK.
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