Orange And Vodafone In UK Network Sharing Deal

More UK operators sharing their networks to cut costs and extend their network reach. The Guardian reports that Orange and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) have agreed to a UK network sharing deal which could cut the number of mobile phone masts the companies require by several thousand.

Orange and Vodafone have some 27,000 masts across the country between them, which serves a combined 34 million mobile phone users. The two won't actually share physical infrastructure, but will cut down the number of mast sites that they have across the country by placing their transmitters on the same site. This will allow them to get rid of a "few thousand" duplicate sites and reduce their network running costs.

The partnership, which could be announced as early as today, involves masts sites for both 2G and 3G access. Orange and Vodafone had been in talks over a network sharing deal since last year, and were supposed to sign a deal in September 2007 when Orange bosses "got cold feet". New Orange UK CEO Tom Alexander apparently revived the deal and pushed hard for its completion. In December, T-Mobile and 3 agreed to share not only the sites of their masts, but the actual masts as well. O2 is the only British operator now without a network sharing deal.

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