Vodafone signed a further partner market agreement to expand its reach into yet more distant corners of the globe, this time linking up with DoCoMo Pacific to target Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
The non-equity agreement means that DoCoMo Pacific, which is fully owned by Japan-based NTT DoCoMo, will in future be Vodafone's preferred partner for the two markets. The companies plan to jointly offer a range of products and services to consumer and business customers.
Stefano Gastaut, the CEO of Vodafone Partner Markets, noted that this latest agreement extends the UK-based group's footprint to 54 markets worldwide and will expand the reach of Vodafone's services in the Asia-Pacific region.
Vodafone typically uses non-equity partner market arrangements such as these to target markets where it does not have a presence. It signed a number of similar deals during 2014.
In November last year it signed a framework agreement with Afrimax Group to explore further opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Uganda set to be the first target market under the new arrangement.
Prior to that it teamed up with Bemobile Limited in July to collaborate on the sale of a range of products and services to businesses and consumers in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The UK-based operator also makes use of such partner market agreements to target markets closer to home: in August it renewed its agreement with Belgacom to cover sales in Belgium and Luxembourg for a further three years.
In May, Vodafone and France's SFR--since acquired by Altice-owned cable unit Numericable--extended their global alliance for a further four years and said their enterprise units also plan to work on new business opportunities in the fields of M2M, 3G and LTE roaming and unified communications.
For more:
- see this Vodafone release
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