By Prince Osuagwu

Two of the world’s leading telecommunications companies, Etisalat UAE and Telefonica Spain, jointly announced recently that they have signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement to enter into a broad based cooperation.

This partnership will allow both groups to collaborate on a range of strategic areas given their capabilities and expertise.

As a result, the companies will strengthen their capabilities to address global industry trends and compete in each of their markets, capturing efficiencies and advancing initiatives aimed at better serving their customers’ needs across their respective footprints.

Speaking on this new partnership agreement, the CEO Etisalat Nigeria , Steven Evans said: “Etisalat is continually coming up with new ways to give our customers an all encompassing mobile experience.

This new partnership will help both Etisalat and Telefonica maintain our lead in innovation and facilitate operational efficiency as both parties will draw on each other’s expertise in their respective footprints.”

Under the terms of this agreement, the two parties will establish mechanisms to enable them draw on each other’s experience in various strategic areas, including collaboration on technological standardization, new global technology initiatives, and new emerging products and services designed to capture the digital growth opportunities such as M2M, financial services or cloud-based services.

Both companies have also agreed to jointly work on procurement, international capacity and wholesale services as well as offering enhanced support for multinational customers of each operator taking advantage of the benefits of the Telefónica Partners Program.

The Partnership Agreement is of immediate effect and will enable both companies to improve efficiency, drive innovation and generate savings.

The agreement is expected to reinforce each company’s leadership in their markets, and provide a stronger basis to compete globally in the changing telecommunications industry.