Methodology and small print
The Network Sharing Study is based on publicly available information relating to network sharing arrangements from 1 April 2021 to July 2024.
The aim of this study is to categorise and analyse the identified network sharing deals and related regulatory framework. However, many national authorities and parties to such arrangements do not publicly disclose the details of such network shares, therefore not all deals have been included in this study. Information has come from publicly available sources and thus was not checked against the legal documentation in place for the respective deals. In the interactive map, which we hope you find useful, the brief details of a maximum of three deals per country are included. We have endeavoured to include those which are particularly noteworthy, typically due to their characteristics and/or size.
We do not consider network sharing to comprise:
- Generally available access products offered by wireline providers to MNOs (e.g. providing bitstream capacity for backhaul, sharing of existing ducts/masts with MNOs, dark cable/fibre services etc.), we note provision of similar services could be viewed as network sharing if done between MNOs;
- White-label MVNOs;
- General M&A.
Fixed infrastructure sharing deals include any of the following elements:
- Core network infrastructure in particular fibre backbones;
- Local infrastructure including FTTC, FTTH and passive elements such as ducts, poles or dark fibre;
- Notable deals for Common Telecom Infrastructure (CTI) where this encompasses multi-site deals. Individual arrangements e.g. with respect to new building complexes etc should not be included.
Mobile network sharing deals include any of the following elements:
- Passive elements i.e. sharing of masts, towers, sites, cabinet, power, air conditioning etc.
- Radio access network elements include antenna, base stations, NodeB and eNodeB units
- Spectrum used to access end user equipment only
- Core network sharing means sharing of e.g. MME, SGW, Mobile Switching Center, transmission ring or backhaul, logical elements (e.g. billing/VAS.)
- Small cells
- National roaming
“Other” deals include:
- Subsea cables
- Multi-purposing of broadcast infrastructure
- Facilitating M2M/IoT
Countries in scope
Albania, Algeria, Angola, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom
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