Network sharing is an old idea that was and still is popular with enterprise systems. However, it is a new idea in the broader public telecom business. Since Dan Hesse of Sprint stated that network sharing with Level 3 is a possibility, the idea has gain new traction.

As a rule carriers do not share network equipment. Think about it, why would an army share equipment with its enemy? The answer is they normally would not. Carriers are trying to beat each other’s brains in, in the competitive marketplace, hence you r are not going to do anything to help each other.

However, today’s recession has driven home one thing to carriers: in order for any of them to compete or even serve their respective customers, they need to share resources because cash for building new networks is in limited supply.

Sharing equipment is not exactly new for carriers. In the last 15 years, wireless carriers went from owning the towers their antennae sat on to leasing space from a tower company. The tower company in turn would lease the same tower to multiple carriers; hence sharing is not exactly new. True, tower companies are leasing space for money to carriers so sharing is not exactly an accurate term but you get what I mean about using redundant equipment.

Internally, carriers have always worked to optimize their networks by sharing resources of various network elements. However, network sharing as it is envisioned today is about network operators working together to reduce capital expenditures and reduce time to market. These network operators can be competitors, customer-suppliers, or operators that have absolutely nothing to one with one another.

At an engineering/technology level, network sharing offers an opportunity to reduce capital costs and reduce service deployment times. Imagine, Sprint calling Level 3 and asking to cut a deal to share network resources. Level 3 needs to grow its business. Sprint needs to grow its business. However, Sprint and Level 3 have two different customer bases. It is not enough to say you want to make money. Both companies need to make money in a fashion that complements one another’s business.

Network sharing requires both carriers to have complementary networks and technology viewpoints.

Network sharing also requires network management tools and processes that likely do not currently exist for a combined network.

Imagine fitting a square peg into a round hole.

You can plan a step-by-step way of integrating or sharing network functions. Careful scheduling of resources can avoid resource access conflicts. Careful network planning can ensure that two different networks operated by two different operators can evolve together in an intelligent and thoughtful fashion, which can support user services.

Sharing networks is not impossible but requires a great deal of coordination and work. In this case, you can make a square peg fit into a round hole by adjusting the peg and the hole.

In other words, think out of the box.