Danish operators Telia and Telenor on Tuesday signed a network sharing agreement designed to establish a common infrastructure for 2G, 3G and 4G networks.

Under the agreement, the two companies will give each other access to existing towers in areas where they would otherwise have had to build their own. In addition, future mobile towers will be built jointly by Telenor and Telia, which is owned by Nordic carrier TeliaSonera. This will reduce both companies’ spending on mobile infrastructure while at the same time allowing them to expand the joint network more quickly than they would have been able to do on their own.

The partnership only covers the radio access network, including the antennas, towers and transmission equipment and does not involve the two companies’ core networks where their services are produced.

The deal is underway, with the carriers already in the process of giving each other access to existing 2G and 3G positions within the framework of the mobile tower legislation – as well as planning new joint 2G and 3G positions.

“TeliaSonera have high ambitions in Denmark. To achieve these ambitions, we need to do two things successfully, we need to provide a world-class customer experience, and we need to secure the scale of our network to ensure that it is profitable to do business in Denmark in the long term. By sharing networks, we are taking a strategically important step on both fronts, making us better prepared to face the competition”, said Håkan Dahlström, President business area Mobility services, TeliaSonera.