Nordic carriers Telenor and Telia are hailing a network sharing deal in Denmark as a landmark in the nation’s telecoms industry.
The pair has agreed to combine their 2G, 3G and 4G networks in the country, in a move designed to cut their respective investment in new cell towers, and speed up network expansion. The partnership covers the pair’s radio access networks, but not their core services.
Søren Abildgaard and Jon Erik Haug, the respective chiefs of Telia and Telenor, say the merger is a milestone in Denmark’s wireless history, aiding their firms in offering high-quality services to subscribers by building scale and profitability. "We are making our network even more finely meshed and thus improving the speech and data coverage of both companies, which will directly benefit customers,” they state.
While the deal looks similar to a tie-up between Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, which last year merged their wireless businesses to form EverythingEverywhere, a crucial difference is that Telia and Telenor will continue to compete with each other under their current brands.