Vodafone is in discussions with Deutsche Telekom in Germany about sharing networks in the so-called "grey zone," which currently offers only one mobile service.
The deal could help Germany achieve the 5g target set by the national regulator, which wants to provide 100 Mbit / s services to 98% of households by December 2022.
In November, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom agreed to build another 2000 mobile sites at white point, which now have no mobile services at all. The new site will be shared with competitors.
Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom can now build on the deal to reach a new agreement to share "active" network devices, which means base stations and other electronic devices used by mobile sites.
Vodafone CEO Nick read earlier confirmed the talks as the operator released a deal update for the quarter to the end of December.
German mobile operators have been looking for ways to reduce deployment costs and accelerate 5g deployments, spending about 6.5 billion euros ($7.2 billion) last year (much higher than analysts expected) on new frequency licenses.
Vodafone's holding of these license fees is partly due to an increase in net debt last year. After Vodafone also bought cable assets previously owned by liberty global, net debt soared to 48.1 billion euros ($52.9 billion) from 27 billion euros ($29.7 billion) in March to September.
The work of network sharing is mainly concentrated in rural areas of Germany, because in densely populated communities, read calls it "several challenges".
In these areas, a large part of Germany's mobile infrastructure is installed on the roof of buildings, which face stricter EMF (electromagnetic field) restrictions due to public concerns that mobile phone signals may be harmful to health.
Read said roof rentals are usually negotiated on a per operator basis, not per site basis. For new entrants, it is more challenging to enter the city site or get preferential terms.
Vodafone said German operators are not normally allowed to sublease the roof site to other tenants.
The update comes as Vodafone appreciates the creation of an independent tower business that will manage some 60000 Vodafone sites in Europe.
Vodafone, which appointed a management team in November, has now chosen Dusseldorf as its headquarters for the new tower business and expects it to be operational in May.
The operator is currently preparing for an IPO that could take place in early 2021, and said it was also considering "monetization" of individual markets.
