Why cellular network sharing makes sense?
THERE’S CONSIDERABLE logic behind yesterday’s confirmation that T-Mobile and 3 UK are going to share their 3G networks. Neither has a fixed broadband offering – so concentrating on mobile broadband makes sense.Unlike the stalled Vodafone and Orange RAN (Radio Access Network) share, this couple has gone right ahead and formed a management company - Mobile Broadband Network Ltd.
There’s loads of coverage figures being banded around but the combined network should reach the higher end of 90 per cent of the population.
The initial focus in 2008 will be on extending wide area coverage to rural areas, chiefly by moving 5,000 base stations from places where the two networks current overlap. Then the focus will shift to improving indoor coverage in dense urban areas in 2009.
The pair also claim this will create Europe’s most extensive HSDPA network. So where the world’s most extensive? In Japan, perhaps?
