In what is becoming the norm across Europe when it comes to deploying high speed mobile data networks, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom/Orange announced they will combine their equipment purchasing activities as a way to save $572 million to $1.3 billion during the next three years.
The agreement builds on a partnership the two have had in place since February, which calls for the companies to work together to find common ground on Wi-Fi roaming, M2M service and radio access network sharing.
Under the new deal, four pilot projects will enable the companies to jointly-procure handsets, network kits, service platforms and other IT infrastructure.
Deutsche Telekom CTO, Edward Kozel, said the deal was necessary to achieve economies of scale as operators must continually invest more in their networks and infrastructure.
"Europe's mobile telecoms industry has just turned 30 and is growing up," noted Thomas Wehmeier, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. "As the industry matures, it's started to look outside the borders of the telecommunications sector to understand how other industries have gone through that same process of growing up. In particular, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom must learn the lessons of best practice from the automotive industry, where strategic procurement deals of this type have long since been common place."
For more:
- see this Telecoms.com article
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