EE And Three Agree £1bn 4G Network Partnership

EE and Three have agreed to build the next part of their respective basic 4G networks together, according to the Financial Times, which reports that the operators will invest a combined £1 billion into the partnership.

Three and T-Mobile, pooled their British 3G instrastructure in a joint venture called Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) in 2010. When T-Mobile merged with Orange to create EE, the Orange infrastructure also joined the party in September 2010.

This new agreement will see Three and EE share mast infrastructure and the cost of transmission between the masts and their main networks, but antennas, spectrum and the core network will remain separate, while each operator will have more freedom in terms of LTE deployment, unlike MBNL, which linked the pace of network investment.

Three EE 4G deal

EE, which was the first UK operator to launch an LTE network in November 2012, hopes the deal will allow it to differentiate its network more and allow it to continue to justify the premium it charges for its 4G service and take advantage of its head start. Its coverage extends to nearly 70 percent of the UK, whereas Three has only just started its 4G rollout and will not charge any extra for its LTE service, which should reach 50 towns and cities by the end of the year.

“The new framework increases cost efficiencies as we continue our roll out of 4G to cover more than 90 percent of the UK population by the end of the year,” says EE. “This is part of our £1.5 billion three year investment to significantly differentiate the EE network in terms of the people we connect and the experience they receive.”

The two parties had held discussions about spectrum sharing, but TechWeekEurope understands these talks broke down, mainly because Three didn’t see any benefit from such an arrangement.

In 2012, Vodafone and O2 announced their intention to pool together their basic network infrastructure, creating a national grid of 18,500 sites to provide wider coverage of 4G.

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