Vodafone and O2 have reached an agreement to market their shared mobile infrastructure in the UK, with former subsidiary Vantage Towers adding the towers to its European portfolio. Vantage Towers was established in 2019 with the goal of providing infrastructure services to other operators and attracting third-party investment. The Newbury-based operator divested its European tower assets into a separate entity in 2019, with the aim of providing infrastructure services to third parties and attracting outside investment. This deal excluded the UK, where Vodafone has shared mobile towers with O2 since 2012.
Vodafone Vantage Towers
Under this partnership agreement, each company has taken responsibility for improvements and construction in different parts of the country to eliminate duplication. However, both parties retained control of customer data, spectrum, and radio equipment to ensure differentiated service. The agreement has since been extended to 5G, although each company has retained more autonomy in major cities. Cornerstone now has approximately 14.200 macro sites as towers across the UK, as well as 1.400 micro sites as small cells, bringing Vantage Towers' presence in Europe to over 82.000 across 10 countries. As part of the deal, Vodafone's 50% stake in Cornerstone was transferred to Vantage Towers, while O2 and O2 signed long-term agreements making Vantage a preferred provider. The news reinforces Vodafone's position ahead of Vantage's planned introduction in Frankfurt later this year. “Cornerstone is a great addition to Vantage Towers' portfolio,” said Vivek Badrinath, CEO of Vantage Towers. “Cornerstone is exactly the kind of high-quality network we love to have: a number one position in the market and two strong reference tenants with network sharing agreements in place for which we are the preferred provider. We look forward to working with our major tenants to drive the UK's digital transformation, enable the deployment of 5G networks to benefit businesses and consumers, and ensure greater mobile coverage for all.