Combined O2 & Vodafone mast

As a County Councillor I was involved in the planning consent for our local Vodafone 4G mast and was disappointed to read within the planning application that the mast would not offer a combined Vodafone & O2 service, despite also stating that the mast would be overseen by Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Ltd (CTIL) which is for the purpose of operating a single network grid for Vodafone and Telef�nica (O2).

Strangely I could never achieve a 4G Vodafone connection from this mast, only 3G, yet on O2 I can achieve a top speed 4G connection even though there is no O2 mast in the local area.

This puzzle was solved earlier today. Driving past there were two Engineers working on the cubicle. I introduced myself and asked the obvious question as to whether the mast was used by both Vodafone and Telef�nica? And it is, which now explains the signal and speed that I get.

Now why couldn't Vodafone have got the planning details correct in the first place?

Cheers!

I think it is a pity that 3 and O2 were not allowed to merge. I prefer fewer networks that work with decent coverage rather than more networks but poor coverage.