The UK’s CityFibre has agreed to acquire FibreNation, the infrastructure unit of Internet service provider TalkTalk (see below), a deal which will make it less reliant on its partnership with Vodafone, and give it greater scale with which to challenge incumbent BT Openreach and help shake up the backhaul, as well as the access, market. The deal also highlights several broader trends which are becoming visible in western European markets and elsewhere, which will help shape the 5G and converged fixed/wireless services landscape with a far greater role for asset sharing and wholesale models. One is the beginning of a trend to separate service provision from infrastructure. Sometimes this may be mandated by the government – in the UK, regulator…