Vodafone UK and Orange announced today that they have finalized their joint network sharing agreement and are in search of an outsourcing partner. Such a partner will help the carriers maintain their network masts, which could lead to job cuts in the U.K. for the carriers. The carriers have been in talks for months to create the JV. The initial agreement only covers the carriers' newer 3G networks, but the companies plan to expand it to include their legacy networks as well. Last year, U.K. operator 3 signed a seven year $2 billion contract with Ericsson to outsource some of their operations, which included a 1,000 employee transfer to Ericsson.

For more on the JV:
- read this report from The Guardian