Vodafone Group (“Vodafone”) and the Conexus Mobile Alliance (“Conexus” or the “Alliance”) today jointly announce that they have agreed to form a strategic partnership which will significantly expand Vodafone’s partner market presence in Asia and provide Conexus member customers with greater support in Vodafone’s global footprint.
Vodafone intends to work with as many of the Conexus members as possible*, complementing Vodafone’s own regional operations in India, Australia, Fiji and New Zealand and its existing partners in Malaysia (Celcom) and Sri Lanka (Dialog).
Over time, Vodafone’s agreement with Conexus will include partnerships with:
- FarEasTone (Taiwan);
- Hutchison Telecom (Hong Kong);
- NTT DOCOMO (Japan);
- SMART (the Philippines);
- StarHub (Singapore); and
- TrueMove (Thailand).
Vodafone and Conexus also intend to expand partnerships with remaining Conexus members, such as KT in South Korea, to further enhance coverage.
In countries where Vodafone already has a current partner market agreement in place, any new agreement with a Conexus member would take effect once the existing contract had expired.
The move will enhance both Conexus members’ and Vodafone’s ability to meet growing demand among multinational businesses for sophisticated voice and data communications solutions as well as advanced roaming services within and out of Asia.
Vodafone Global Enterprise - the business within Vodafone that manages the communications needs of multinational companies - already has 140 customers which are headquartered in Asia Pacific and a further 435 customers which operate in the region.
Conexus members will be able to use the Vodafone brand, enjoy access to Vodafone’s devices and services in their home markets and become the preferred partner of Vodafone in respect of the agreed areas of cooperation.
Together, Vodafone and Conexus will provide customers with enhanced network coverage, harmonised roaming rates across multiple countries and greater cost efficiencies**.
Vodafone’s multinational customers will benefit by being able to add the Conexus countries to their existing contracts for international managed services, while continuing to be serviced via a single point of contact. Conexus members will similarly benefit from Vodafone’s footprint. In addition, Vodafone and Conexus plan to support multinational corporations by providing communications expenditure tracking and procurement services while introducing innovative mobile price plans across the two organisations’ shared area of operations.
Morten Lundal, Vodafone’s Group Chief Commercial Officer, said: “The value to Vodafone of collaborating with Conexus will be significant given the growing importance of Asia to our enterprise customers. These agreements will strengthen and deepen the benefits to our customers operating in these large and dynamic markets.”
Andrew Kwok, Chairman of Conexus, said: “Conexus is always actively looking for growth opportunities to further enhance its value and competitiveness in the region and worldwide. Through natural growth and member acquisitions, we have tripled our customer base from 100 million to over 320 million in a mere five years after establishment.
“The unprecedented partnership between Conexus and Vodafone is a realisation of Conexus’ growth strategy. We believe that it has marked the world’s first collaboration between one of Asia’s largest mobile alliances and one of the world’s largest mobile communities. The partnership is of strong strategic value to the Alliance. It will not only enable us to further extend our global reach but also increase our overall competitiveness especially in coping with diverse global customer requirements. The partnership showcases our common vision to provide our combined global mobile customer base of over 600 million customers with preferential roaming services and unique value propositions for corporate customers. It also offers a good opportunity for Conexus members to extend their business relationships to more than 40 existing partners of Vodafone,” Mr. Kwok added.
* = The only Conexus country in which Vodafone would not seek an alliance is India, where Vodafone already operates under the Vodafone brand. India remains a Conexus country and there will be no change in the day to day operation and commitment of her alliance members.
** = NTT DOCOMO and Vodafone will enter into a partnership in the area of global corporate sales, terminals and best practice sharing.