Telef�nica and Vodafone reach pan-European deal to share network infrastructure

Good news, Europe. Telefónica and Vodafone have just made public a milestone pan-European agreement that will enable the two to share network infrastructure in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the UK, with detailed discussions ongoing in the Czech Republic. The collaboration will supposedly deliver efficiencies of hundreds of millions of pounds for each company over ten years, and for customers of each, they can look forward to better coverage across each of those nations. Oh, and subscribers should also expect rates to remain lower compared to what would happen if each operator were forced to build out individually, but it's not like either of these guys are coming out and saying that. At any rate, we figure there's some serious celebration in order for those in the region, no?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 23rd 2009 7:56PM]

At the price of how many real jobs?
Unemployed people are not numbers.

[finnschi Posted Mar 23rd 2009 8:39PM]

I Don't get the point... Telefonica is SPAIN only, and there is Vodafone in spain as well... Vodafon already is in UK/France/Spain/Germany... so why would they share anything with Telefonica? and If I travel somewhere I ALWAYS have coverage because all the carriers here have Roaming contracts... the only cool thing would be if i can place calls between countries and NOT pay roaming charges...

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 23rd 2009 8:48PM]

Telefonica own O2 in the U.K, so the sharing extends to the O2 network in the U.K., I would imagine it's the case in the other countries as well.

[Evan Posted Mar 23rd 2009 9:21PM]

Could have sworn I read this already
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/03/23/business/business-uk-vodafone-telefonica.html