Vodafone & 3 Ireland are merging together
Remember back in October 2010 Orange and T-Mobile struck a deal to merge both networks together? Well now in the Republic of Ireland Vodafone Ireland and Three Ireland have agreed to share their physical networks and site infrastructure where both companies will form a new joint-venture company with each operator holding a 50 percent stake.
With the new joint-venture both Three and Vodafone will have increased purchasing leverage, an increased fibre footprint and better network coverage for their respective customers.
CEO of Vodafone Ireland, Jeroen Hoencamp says,
“This agreement, in which infrastructure is shared between both parties, means we can concentrate investment on the intelligent part of the network that will ultimately deliver a better experience for Vodafone customers.”
Both Three and Vodafone will however, continue to operate their own network capabilities separately and will remain independently responsible for the technology and spectrum that is deployed on a site-by-site basis.
Hoencamp says,
“At a retail level we will continue to compete aggressively against one another and with other operators, to offer value and innovative services to consumers and businesses across the country.”
Back in June Vodafone UK also merged with Telefonica UK (the parent company of O2) agreed to create a national grid of 18,500 sites in the UK that will provide a wider coverage of 4G when it actually arrives in the country.
