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Etisalat Partners with France Telecom for International Strategic Partnership Agreement
3 Jul 08
The incumbent operator of the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, and France's incumbent operator, France Telecom, have announced a strategic agreement to work together on home services, content, and international networking.
Global Insight Perspective | | Significance | Etisalat and France Telecom will focus on converged solutions in developing and more mature markets. | Implications | The agreement will provide both operators to gain access to a wider range of markets and build upon each others' expertise. | Outlook | Both operators are dominant players within their own regions, the partnership will give each operator an even wider coverage for a range of services. |
Both operators have now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together, primarily for home data services. In the last year growth from broadband services have shown the highest growth compared to all other services within the Middle East. Etisalat is focusing on home data services in its domestic market, the United Arab Emirates. It has been competing head-on with du for fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services and would be particularly interested in France Telecom's European services. In Europe, France Telecom has rolled out home networking solutions and multiple-play services, the concept of "Orange Livebox" (home gateway) and "Orange TV" (IP TV offer via set-up-box) to over 6.8 million customers. France Telecom, Sagem and Thomson jointly launched Soft At Home which aims to create and promote a software platform designed to simplify and accelerate the adoption of residential digital services. (see France: 21 February 2008: Orange, Thomson and Sagem Partner for "Digital Home" Project). The partnership between the two operators will allow Etisalat to use Soft At Home solutions to launch multiple-play offers its own markets. Subject notably to the approval of the other shareholders of Soft At Home, both operators intend to become shareholders of the company to lead the way in home networking technology developments. France Telecom and Etisalat are also evaluating acquisition and distribution options, looking at the opportunity to acquire and or combine specific contents to be distributed on their respective footprints. Both operators will form a distribution agreement for the multi-player online game Warhammer, which is to be released later this year. Etisalat will also work with Studio 37, France Telecom's subsidiary which invests in films, and also intends to invest jointly in co-production of movies and audiovisual programs. Didier Lombard, chairman and CEO, France Telecom, said: "…Both companies believe in the convergence of telecommunications services and access to Content as a key enabler for business in mature and emerging markets. This relationship will help us to build on the success that we have had developing Orange into a leader across communications and content. I am particularly pleased that Etisalat intends to become a shareholder in Soft At Home, and that we will jointly invest with Studio 37 to produce content. " Outlook and Implications The partnership between the two operators will massively increase each other's service coverage in the regions they operate in. Outside of its domestic market, Etisalat has significant mobile operations within North and West Africa. - Mobile Services: In addition to the agreements for services to the home, they have also agreed to implement preferred international roaming within each operator's footprint with the objective to optimise international coverage for their customers, optimise voice and data roaming traffic, improve quality of service and enable innovative services.
- International Networking Solutions: Etisalat and France Telecom will also pursue possible joint investments in building capacity to serve areas of strategic interest to both parties such as West Africa where they both operate, including having a better link between the Middle East and Europe across the Mediterranean.
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