Vodafone Italia and Telecom Italia announced their 4G and 5G network sharing deal to speed up 5G roll outs.
Vodafone UK has a similar 4G and 5G network sharing deal with BT-owned EE. The focus of Vodafone is to reduce both Capex and Opex when it rolls out new networks and improve user experience.
Co-operation on the upgrade of their fibre transmission networks for mobile backhaul, and combining their 22,000 passive towers in Italy into a single entity are also part of the deal announced today.
Vodafone and TIM will jointly roll-out 5G infrastructure. The Active Sharing Project would support a faster deployment of 5G over a wider geographic area, at a lower cost. They will evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of jointly deploying active 5G equipment across the country.
Vodafone and TIM will also consider active network sharing for their existing 4G networks, in order to support 5G active network sharing. Vodafone and TIM will upgrade their mobile transmission networks, adding higher capacity optical fibre cables.
Aldo Bisio, CEO of Vodafone Italia, said: “5G represents a technological breakthrough that requires investment, efficiency and a rapid rollout. This has led us to broaden the scope of our existing successful partnership.”
Luigi Gubitosi, CEO of TIM, said: “This partnership will allow our customers to enter the 5G revolution faster and deeper, while at the same time making the best use of both companies’ resources.”
