International heavyweight telecom providers Telefónica and MegaFon have agreed a new strategic partnership that will see the Russian group join Telefónica’s Partners Programme. This will enable the operators to work together and benefit from each others’ knowledge.
The agreement will allow both firms to reduce costs through joint procurement of equipment, as well as encouraging the exchange of technological knowledge. The partnership also allows for a business roaming arrangement between the two parties.
There are already a number of high profile participants in the Partners Programme, including China Unicom and Telecom Italia. Telefonica holds an equity stake in both of these operators.
MegaFon CEO Ivan Tavrin commented: “Joining Telefónica’s Partners Programme is in line with MegaFon’s long term strategy focused on efficient growth, mobile Internet service development and enhancement of the customer experience.”
Going forward, the firms may collaborate in other markets such as Cloud, M2M and OTT.
