Vodafone share price: Telco moves to strengthen partnership with O2

Vodafone (LON:VOD) has moved to strengthen its partnership with Telefonica (O2), the blue-chip telco has said. The news comes as the FTSE 100 group prepares to update investors on its third-quarter performance this week.

Vodafone’s share price has climbed higher in London in today’s session, having gained 0.97 percent to 149.60p as of 10:01 GMT. The stock is outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index having fallen into the red and currently standing 0.26 percent lower at 6,883.59 points.

Vodafone and O2 strengthen partnership

Vodafone announced in a statement this morning that it had entered into a non-binding agreement with Telefonica to strengthen their existing network sharing partnership. The London-listed telco and O2 plan to extend the existing network sharing partnership term and include 5G at joint radio network sites, which would enable both companies to deploy 5G faster.

The companies will also look to extend greater network autonomy in a number of larger cities and upgrade their transmission networks with higher capacity optical fibre cables. Vodafone and O2 further intend to devolve additional activities to CTIL, their joint venture company which owns and manages the parties’ passive tower infrastructure.

The groups noted that the initiatives remained contingent on the parties agreeing detailed terms and concluding legally binding agreements, as well as on regulatory approvals. Vodafone and O2 plan to conclude these steps in the current year.

Vodafone to post results this week

Today’s news comes as Vodafone plans to post its Q3 results on Friday and IG reports that earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth for the group is expected to be maintained at around three percent. The broker’s market analyst Shaun Murison said in a note yesterday that the markets will be looking out for clues relating to the company’s (debt) leverage and outlook in anticipation of a future return to a progressive dividend policy.

As of 10:06 GMT, Wednesday, 23 January, Vodafone Group plc share price is 149.42p.