Vodafone and Google have announced an exciting ten-year extension of their partnership to bring new services, devices, and TV experiences to Vodafone customers in Europe and Africa.
With support from Google Cloud and its Gemini AI models, this partnership aims to enhance storage, security, and AI assistance for Vodafone’s customers and partners.
This announcement comes just ten months after Vodafone teamed up with Microsoft in January 2024 to deliver generative AI and digital services to over 300 million businesses and consumers in Africa and Europe. As part of that initiative, Vodafone plans to invest $1.5 billion in cloud and AI services created in collaboration with Microsoft.
Both Google and Microsoft will utilize Vodafone’s mobile and fixed connectivity services to enhance productivity for their users. Margherita Della Valle, CEO of Vodafone Group, explained, “Using these services, our customers can discover new ways to learn, create, and communicate, as well as consume TV, on a scale we haven’t seen before.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, echoed this sentiment, stating that the expanded partnership will help bring Google’s most advanced AI products to more people in Europe and Africa.
Vodafone is already active in several African countries, including the DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, and South Africa. In South Africa, Vodacom, a subsidiary of Vodafone, is set to merge with Maziv and recently reported a service revenue of R61.6 billion ($3.36 billion), marking a 2.6% increase from the previous year.
In Egypt, the government has signed agreements for the second phase of 5G licenses with three mobile operators, including Vodafone Egypt.
As part of their Google partnership, Vodafone plans to expand access to Google’s AI-powered Pixel devices using its 5G network. “Vodafone TV aims to become even more personalized and engaging, with improved content search and recommendations using Google Cloud’s generative AI across its set-top boxes,” Vodafone shared. They also mentioned plans to roll out advertising using Google Ad Manager in the future.
Additionally, Vodafone intends to offer Google One AI Premium subscription plans, which will include Gemini Advanced, in selected regions by 2025.
