Telefonica And Yoigo Agree To Share Mobile Infrastructure

MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Spain's Telefonica and Yoigo, the Spanish mobile phone unit of Sweden's TeliaSonera, Monday said they have agreed to share mobile telephony infrastructure.

In a joint statement, the companies said they would share mobile antennas in order to improve their coverage in both rural and urban areas and to reduce the costs involved in installing new antennas.

The companies also said that the agreement was made necessary by the difficulties cellular companies have in Spain in finding sites for new antennas.

The agreement, initially for five years, replaces an earlier one between the two companies which ran from October 2003 and which allowed Yoigo to use Telefonica's network for its initial rollout.

Yoigo was launched in December of last year and has more than 100,000 customers. Telefonica is Spain and Latin America's biggest telecommunications company by market share and has roughly 21.8 million mobile customers in its core Spanish market.

-By Jason Sinclair, Dow Jones Newswires; +34 913958127, jason.sinclair@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 2nd July 2007