Norwegian telco Telenor partners with Google Cloud for digital transformation push

Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor is partnering with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital transformation plans, while drawing on the tech giant’s portfolio of off-premise services to bring new services to market for its customers.

The partnership will see the pair work together on modernising Telenor’s in-house IT and networks, and collaborate on the creation and roll-out of new customer-facing services that will be built using Google’s portfolio of data management and machine learning services.

“Both companies aspire to transform and modernise Telenor’s IT and networks by looking into how Google Cloud’s services, global datacentre network and security capabilities can be used,” the companies said in a joint statement.

“Both companies will also look to drive better customer experiences by leveraging Google Cloud’s data, analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies,” it added. “Telenor and Google Cloud’s collaboration aims to support customers and industries to face their digital transformation challenges.”

The latter will be achieved through the creation of new horizontal and vertical-specific services, the companies confirmed. Telenor will also look to use Google’s cloud technologies to revamp its existing products and technology initiatives.

The two companies will also offer consultancy services to Telenor customers to guide them through their own digital transformations.

Sigve Brekke, president and CEO of Telenor Group, said the Google partnership was a show of its commitment to expanding beyond its roots as a connectivity provider.

“Telenor wants to work with leaders in the tech industry and stay committed to being at the forefront of modernisation and digitisation,” said Brekke. “As connectivity is the foundation for building trust, we believe that together we can go beyond connectivity to enhance our offering to our customers with new and innovative solutions, whilst improving the overall experience of our current portfolio.”

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, added: “We look forward to further driving Telenor’s ability to digitally transform its customers’ businesses with infrastructure, industry solutions and technology expertise – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry.”