Telefonica is deepening an alliance with China Unicom to cover access to points of presence (PoP) in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
The operators claim the deal boosts their ability to offer voice and data services to multinational companies, improving the efficiency and cutting the cost of providing those services. The duo has also agreed to cooperate on marketing and customer service as part of the deal.
China Unicom is opening the door to its PoPs in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, France and Sweden, in return for access to Telefonica PoPs in 38 countries in Latin America and Europe.
Telefónica Global Solutions chief, Juan Carlos Lopez-Vives, says the extended alliance means the operators can “offer unique and differentiated solutions to multinational corporations in the most relevant markets,” including key territories Brazil and China.
The agreement builds on a 2009 alliance between Telefonica and Unicom covering infrastructure procurement and development of wireless service platforms. The duo is also collaborating to develop machine-to-machine technical specifications, under an agreement signed in October.