Richard Tanner wrote: > I was informed by a Vodaphone shop recently that this was due > to happen within the next three months. > > I emailed Vodaphone for confirmation, or otherwise, but the > reply didn't make a great deal of sense. > > Does anyone here know anything about this?
Originally, Vodafone (note, spelt with an F not a PH) and Orange were plnning something very clever, a network share. This would have meant that anywhere you had Vodafone coverage you would also have had Orange coverage and vice versa as not only were we going to share masts, but also the antennas and base station equipment, i.e. one network serving two operators. This would have meant both operators could have decommisioned a large number of sites whilst both getting improved coverage. A very good idea in principle but unfortunately it turned out to be far more complicated than anyone imagined (not just technically) and eventually the idea was shelved (about a month or two ago). All the operators have had site sharing (i.e. mast sharing) agreements in place with each other for years, but as Baz has said, it is not always as simple as some people would think (antenna separation to prevent intereference, bigger/stronger masts etc). The result of the network sharing deal coming to an end was a new site share agreement between Vodafone and Orange (not sure how different this is to the existing site share arrangement to be honest, in fact I'm not sure I have spoken to anyone in the company who does know how it differs which may explain the confusing email reply from customer care! But then I don't work in the roll out teams anymore). So in short, yes we do share masts and have done since long before I started at Vodafone (although in fairness we are more proactive about it now than we were when I started 13 years ago). I've even found a press release for you: http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/local_press_releases/ uk_press_releases/2007/vodafone_and_orange.html I love the way it makes site sharing sound like something new :-) Anyway, hope that helps. George "Bungle" Eycott (working for Vodafone in my spare time)
