- Vodafone and Google have extended their existing partnership by ten years to bring new services, devices, and TV experiences to Vodafone’s customers in Europe and Africa.
- The move, supported by Google Cloud and Google’s Gemini models, will bring storage, security, and AI assistance to Vodafone’s customers and partners.
- This comes nearly ten months after Vodafone, in January 2024, announced a ten-year partnership with Microsoft to provide generative AI, digital services, and cloud solutions to over 300 million businesses and consumers in Africa and Europe.
During this period, Vodafone plans to invest $1.5 billion in cloud and customer-focused AI services created in collaboration with Microsoft.
The tech giant will use Vodafone's fixed and mobile connectivity services. Similarly, for its partnership with Google, the tech giant will use Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services to improve workforce productivity.
Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, stated that the move will put new AI-powered content and devices in the hands of millions more customers. “Using these services, our customers can discover new ways to learn, create, and communicate, as well as consume TV, on a scale we haven’t seen before,” she added.
For Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, the expanded partnership will bring the firm's most advanced AI products and services to more people in Europe and Africa.
Vodafone’s presence in Africa includes the DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, and Lesotho.
In South Africa, Vodacom, a subsidiary of Vodafone, plans to merge with Maziv and reported in May 2024 that the telco generated R61.6 billion ($3.36 billion) in service revenue, up 2.6% from the previous year.
Recently, the Egyptian government signed agreements for the second phase of 5G licences with three mobile operators, including Vodafone Egypt.
Per its Google partnership announcement, Vodafone said it will expand access to Google’s AI-powered Pixel devices with its 5G network.
“Vodafone TV aims to become even more personalised and engaging, with improved content search and recommendations using Google Cloud’s generative AI across its set-top boxes, with a view to rolling out advertising using Google Ad Manager in the future,” Vodafone stated.
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Vodafone also added that companies intend to enable Vodafone to offer Google One AI Premium subscription plans, which include Gemini Advanced, in select territories by 2025.
