Vodafone, Google deepen strategic partnership with 10-year, multibillion-dollar deal

Sealing a 10-year deal to “help consumers take advantage of the latest hardware and digital technologies”, including artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-based applications, Vodafone and Google have signed a strategic expansion of their existing partnership.

The deal will see the companies bring new services, devices and experiences to Vodafone’s customers across Europe and Africa, supported by Google Cloud and Google’s Gemini generative AI (GenAI) models.

The agreement will bring storage, security and AI assistance to Vodafone’s customers in 15 countries, as well as its partners in an additional 45 markets worldwide, while Google will use Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services to improve workforce productivity. In particular, Vodafone will expand access to Google’s AI-powered Pixel devices with its 5G network in Europe, and continue promoting the Android ecosystem.

Vodafone and Google Cloud already have a history of collaboration. The companies have worked together to create a data repository (data lake) that houses Vodafone’s data and its existing AI and data analytics services on Google Cloud.

With the expanded partnership, Vodafone will build on its existing private data repository and use Vertex AI – Google Cloud’s enterprise-ready AI platform – to build, deploy and scale machine learning models and AI applications powered by Google’s Gemini models, in a bid to help increase the speed and ease with which Vodafone’s operating companies in multiple countries can innovate and launch new products.

Vodafone wants to offer its business customers enhanced cyber protection with its own soon-to-be-developed cloud-native cybersecurity solution using Google Cloud’s Security Operations platform. It will provide security incident and event management, as well as new software-based protection tools. Vodafone will also use Google Cloud’s Security Operations platform when developing certain products and services.

In addition, both companies intend to jointly promote the use of universal industry standards in areas such as online safety, responsible AI development, network performance and interoperability to drive economies of scale in industrial efficiency, boost innovation, and improve public services at scale. Vodafone has committed to put AI-powered cloud, content and connectivity into the hands of more people.

Vodafone and Google have also committed to work together to improve and expand the range of products and services available in stores and online, supported with an enhanced customer experience rooted in the benefits of AI. The firms are working towards enabling the telco to offer YouTube subscription-based products and Google One subscription plans, such as storage plans and AI Premium plans to consumers, in addition to offering a range of Pixel and other Android devices.

Google and Vodafone will be looking to transform the back office with GenAI, with experts building products and scaling priority use-cases for digital, IT and network teams to help automate fault detection and streamline back-office operations.

Commenting on the deal, Vodafone Group chief executive Margherita Della Valle said: “Together, Vodafone and Google will put new AI-powered content and devices into the hands of millions of more consumers. 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.”

“Our expanded partnership with Vodafone will help bring our most advanced AI products and services, including our Gemini models, to more people across Europe and Africa,” added Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

“I’m excited to see how Vodafone’s consumers, small businesses and governments, will use generative AI and Google Cloud to transform the way they work and access information.”