New Zealand operators Kordia and Vodafone New Zealand have forged a new enterprise services partnership.
Kordia, a state-owned telecom and broadcast company, and incumbent mobile operator Vodafone NZ will jointly provide telecom services under enterprise contracts, Kordia said. The operators will jointly respond to RFPs from potential enterprise customers.
The companies have already executed the first contract under the collaboration. In this deal, for brewer DB Breweries, the partners provided mobile devices, remote access managed services, a WAN service, IP telephony, Avaya integration and a bulk text messaging platform.
The deal is significant because just a few months ago, Kordia executives had been accusing Vodafone of being one half of a telecom duopoly in New Zealand.
Kordia CEO Jeoff Hunt had come out swinging against the government choice of the bid by Vodafone and Telecom NZ for a rural broadband project, arguing it would ensure the duopoly continues.
But Kordia and the Vodafone group are no strangers to collaboration. Kordia recently helped Vodafone Australia upgrade the data capacity on its mobile network.