Telefónica Germany confirmed that talks are underway with two other mobile operators to share network infrastructure.
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Telefónica Germany CEO René Schuster said at a press event late Tuesday that he expects to reach an agreement with the two operators by the end of 2011 that would see them sharing the fibre costs associated with backhaul networks. Schuster was reluctant to disclose the identity of the two operators, naming them "magenta" and "red," according Bloomberg. Magenta and red are the corporate branding colours of Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, respectively.
This move comes as Telefónica faces heavyweight pressure to reduce costs, while also planning to expand its German LTE coverage to include the major cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich by the second quarter of 2012. Schuster also confirmed that the operator plans to continue the rollout of LTE next year with the service becoming available in 10 additional cities by September.
This effort to reshape its backhaul network comes as O2 Germany subscribers continue to suffer from poor data services due to networks becoming overloaded in many of the country's major cities.
According to Teltarif.de, nearly 8,000 O2 users have registered their concerns about slow data speeds and disconnections. The company has conceded that problems exist and says an investment programme should alleviate the problem shortly.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Teltarif.de article (translated via Google Translate)
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