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The two operators say the network sharing deal will help prevent overbuild and accelerate their respective rollouts of 5G
Two of Slovakia’s biggest mobile operators have this week finalised a long-awaited network sharing deal, which will O2 Slovakia and Slovak Telekom share mobile infrastructure across the country.
The duo say the deal will help them to boost service quality for customers and reduce rollout costs, particularly with regards to their expanding 5G networks.
The capital city Bratislava and second-largest city Košice are notably exclude from the arrangement, with both operators maintaining their individual networks in these areas.
“Faster deployment of innovations, better signal quality, saving costs and the environment are just some of the benefits that sharing networks will bring. The improvement of customer experience with operators’ networks will also result, for example, from an increase in the common number of base stations, an increase in network capacity, and at the same time, coverage will improve,” said the operators in a joint statement.
Network sharing will begin gradually over the coming months, with process not expected to be fully complete for two or three years.
Both operators stress that the deal will not reduce market competition, with both operators continuing to compete on mobile services.
“As one of the leaders in covering Slovakia with high-speed connections, we will develop mobile networks even faster than before and bring new technologies to areas where it would have taken longer in the past,” said O2 CEO Igor Tóth.
“At the same time, this agreement will not affect our mutual competition and we will continue to compete for the favour of customers with our unique portfolio of products and services and the quality of customer care,” he added.
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