Orange, Vodafone sign historic agreement to share network

Mobile phone giants Orange and Vodafone, which for the past 16 years have been competing for the leading position of Romania's communications market, have signed a surprising agreement to share and jointly develop their networks, which is a first for the local telecom industry.

'Vodafone and Orange are announcing the signing of an agreement to share the network infrastructure. The agreement will allow both companies to continue making investments, at a sustained pace,' reads an announcement issued jointly by the companies and published in the Ziarul Financiar daily.

The agreement will not diminish the competition between Orange, number one, and Vodafone - number two, operators say.

The document - unusual for two rivals in stiff competition over customers - comes amid a significant reduction in their cumulated revenues because of the recession, regulations and tough competition. In 2012, the two operators saw aggregate revenues of 1.7 billion euros, by approximately 800 million euros down from 2008, and the aggregate net profit stood at 229 million euros from 750 million euros in 2008.

The two companies are also faced with a new wave of lowering the interconnection and roaming tariffs, which will further decrease their revenues by some tens of millions of euros, the Ziarul Financiar daily also writes.

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