We cooperate with other networks to share sites and limit the overall number needed. This helps to reduce environmental impacts, relieve pressure on planning authorities with fewer sites to review, and reduce our costs by between five and 25 percent.
Communities often support the idea of shared sites to reduce the need for additional structures in their area. However, shared sites are often larger as they need to accommodate several operators’ equipment and may therefore present more challenges on integrating sites into the landscape. They also carry more traffic, which can increase concern regarding the exposure to radio frequency fields and potential adverse health effects. See Mobiles, masts and health.
The majority of our network sharing is ‘passive’. This means we share the same site and equipment such as poles, cables, electrical and air-conditioning units as another operator, but not the same network equipment (such as antennas). We have passive network sharing agreements in 17 of our markets, including those agreed in Italy and the UK in 2007/08.
In Spain and Australia, we have ‘active’ network sharing agreements, sharing the site infrastructure and network equipment with other operators. We also participate in a third kind of network sharing in Ireland and Egypt, via regional roaming. For these arrangements we keep our base station sites and equipment separate, but our network interacts with that of the other operator so customers' phones can connect through either network. This is particularly useful in remote areas.
Vodafone Essar, our recently acquired subsidiary in India, has partnered with two other operators, Bharti STET and Idea Cellular, to form Indus Towers, an independent mobile infrastructure company, 42% owned by Vodafone. The company will provide infrastructure services to all telecommunication and broadband operators on a non-discriminatory basis. We are also sharing existing sites and passive equipment with Bharti STET and Idea Cellular. This wide-scale network sharing reduces costs for all parties and will enable the industry to achieve widespread coverage across India more quickly.
We continue to explore different options that are appropriate to local conditions in each market.