Telefonica Germany said it has reached an agreement with 1&1 Drillisch on national roaming, allowing the latter to rely on Telefonica's network for coverage while it builds out the 1&1 Drillisch 5G network. With an initial contract period of five years, the contract runs retroactively from 01 July 2020 and can be extended twice. 1&1 Drillisch has an option to extend the contract in a first step until mid-2029, after which another extension of up to five years is possible.
The commercial terms of the agreement are based initially on mobile traffic growth over Telefonica Germany's network.
The national roaming services under the contract include 2G/3G/4G coverage, while the MBA MVNO services continue to include Telefonica's 2G/3G/4G/5G coverage. 1&1 will migrate customers to its own 5G network. In the meantime, until migration is completed, national roaming and MBA MVNO services run in parallel. The commercial terms of the national roaming agreement apply to both services.
1&1 Drillisch recently received an improved offer from Telefonica for national roaming. Telefonica tabled the new offer after the European Commission deemed the previous one submitted last October not fully in line with commitments made by Telefonica when it acquired mobile operator E-Plus.
The new contract extends the companies' long-term partnership as part of the remedy Telefonica had to put in place for the approval of the merger with E-Plus in 2014. According to the remedies, the pricing structures of the national roaming agreement are based on the MBA MVNO contract, a combination of per unit prices and pre-determined values. Price review mechanisms can start once a year.
The parties aim to finalise the details of the national roaming agreement contract by mid-May 2021.
