Mobile Operators Telefonica and MTN have announced that they will be working together in a number of areas, including growth around M2M and enterprise.
This partnership comes under the Telefonica Partners Program initiative which was launched in 2011
In a statement released recently, the companies said they will work together to capture synergies in a number of areas, including M2M, new digital products, as well as services targeting the B2B segment.
Both groups will further cooperate to “capture the new industry opportunities”, and extend the collaboration around international wholesale, devices and network/IT procurement.
Telefonica said its Partners Program already includes operators in 35 markets across Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, with MTN’s inclusion now adding Africa to the list.
According to the MTN Group chief digital officer Herman Singh, “The development scope includes our innovation process and new product offerings as we move into the New Digital World, as well as leveraging our combined scale in areas such as procurement. We are really looking forward to developing this relationship to our mutual benefit.”
For Telefónica, Mario Martín, Industrial Alliances Group Director, said that “Telefónica has a strong belief in the advantages of scale and pooling of skills that industry partnerships can bring. And we are especially proud of having MTN Group, a player with outstanding track record, joining forces with Telefonica under the Partners Program. We are confident that this agreement will bring important benefits to both our Groups”.
In addition to the outlined areas of collaboration, both companies said they may also engage in other business areas, including new initiatives such as mobile money or big data projects.
MTN Group has 233 million subscribers with its focus mainly in Africa, while Telefonica has a customer base of 329 million with operations in Europe and Latin America.
Recently Globacom and Vodafone also entered into a strategic partnership also.
