As operators in saturated markets come under increasing pressure to reduce the costs of deploying and operating 4G and 5G networks, network sharing is becoming increasingly popular, as several developments of the past week highlight. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica Deutschland and Vodafone have signed a letter of intent to join forces on building and operating up to 6,000 new cell sites, to ease the burden of improving coverage in rural areas and on major transport routes. The network sharing deal aims to help the three MNOs comply with the coverage requirements that regulator BNetza imposed on some 5G spectrum licences, which were fiercely opposed by the operators. Germany has a history of insisting that operators build out new networks…