Vodafone Group and Emirates Telecommunications Group Company (e&) announced that they have agreed a strategic relationship that brings the two operators closer together in certain aspects of their businesses.
Vodafone and e& have entered into an agreement that establishes e& as a cornerstone shareholder of Vodafone. This is the next phase in a strategic relationship that began in May 2022, when e& made its original investment in Vodafone.
The relationship enables collaboration across a range of growth areas, as e& and Vodafone can benefit from each other’s respective operational scale and complementary geographic footprint.
The key areas of commercial collaboration that Vodafone and e& will initially pursue include:
In Enterprise, Vodafone and e& will explore jointly offering cross-border digital services and solutions to multi-national customers and public sector organisations. Services will include fixed and mobile connectivity, Mobile Private Networks, IoT, cybersecurity and cloud-based services.
In Procurement, Vodafone and e& will seek to share best practice and may adopt joint procurement.
In Carrier, Wholesale & Roaming, the two operators will work together to become the partner of choice in providing access to high-quality digital infrastructure.
In Technology, both teams will seek to work together on a technology roadmap, including the evolution and adoption of OpenRAN.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of e& will join the Vodafone Board as a non-executive Director for as long as e& maintains its current shareholding of 14.6 percent.
e& will also have the ability to nominate a second non-executive Director, independent of e&, if its shareholding exceeds 20 percent.