Orange And Vodafone Sign Expanded Network Sharing Deal In Spain, Including 5G

Orange and Vodafone have signed a newly-expanded network sharing agreement in Spain that encompasses fixed and mobile networks, including 5G infrastructure. The announcement confirms recent reports and comes after Vodafone reached similar 5G active network sharing deals with Telecom Italia and Telefonica UK (O2) earlier this year. In separate statements, Vodafone and Orange said the agreement is designed to strengthen previous deals covering passive infrastructure nationwide and active infrastructure in smaller towns and to enable the faster rollout of 5G over a wider geographic area. The aim is to establish “a more economically efficient investment model for future network deployment,” said Vodafone, adding that the new deal is more environmentally sensitive and will bring the benefit of more rapid 5G adoption to the Spanish economy.

The terms of the new agreement allow active network sharing (including both the radio access network and high-speed backhaul) in cities with populations of up to 175,000 people, whereas the previous arrangement only enabled sharing in towns of between 1,000 and 25,000 people. Two thirds of the Spanish population will now be covered by Vodafone and Orange’s shared network agreement, with 14,800 sites expected to be shared compared to 5,600 shared today.

The deal also paves the way for Vodafone to offer its customers broadband access and other fixed services on Orange’s fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. Vodafone said it will now be able to deliver fibre-based convergent services to an additional 1 million premises, expanding its overall NGN footprint in Spain to more than 23 million homes. Both companies have also agreed to explore potential co-investment opportunities to expand their fibre footprint in the future.

As in Vodafone’s network sharing deals in the UK and Italy, the Spanish agreement will allow Vodafone and Orange to continue to operate independent infrastructure in the biggest cities. They will also retain separate management of their spectrum rights, the management of their network performance, the control and functionality of their respective core networks, as well as the development of new products and services.―Telecompaper