O2-Vodafone Tie-up Formally Announced
The CEOs of two broadband giants of the UK, O2 and Vodafone, jointly revealed their alliance to merge network sites and masts, formally. As reported earlier this move is a significant one that could save hundreds of millions of pounds over the next decade, in terms of infrastructure costs. The deal, according to the two internet service providing giants, would cover five countries. Guy Lawrence, CEO of Vodafone said on the occasion that in some ways, it was a property deal. However, the transmission from the masts would be left untouched in the deal, as it would be separately managed by the two. Referring to this O2's CEO for Europe said that the next phase was transmission. Meanwhile, the UK chief of O2, Ronan Dunne revealed that the deal would allow them to conveniently meet the costs of mobile broadband demand, apart from boosting their capacity as well as footprint. Recently, Vodafone was under heavy pressure to lower its high prices, which could have been the factor that apprehended their eagerness a bit to give the official nod to the deal.
According to the deal, the two ISPs would split the rent for buildings bearing the masts. As for building, as well as maintaining fresh masts the expenses will be shared between the two networks. Moreover, the expenditure on the sites' power consumption will also be halved by the two broadband suppliers. As a matter of fact, the two networks jointly have around 12,000 masts in Britain.
