JEDDAH – British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group and Kuwait telecom company Zain Group signed Monday a "Partner Market" agreement that will significantly expand Vodafone's partner market presence in the Middle East and provide Zain customers with greater support in Vodafone's global footprint, the company said in a statement. Under the non-equity partnership agreement, Vodafone will work with Zain companies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq to provide customers with high quality communications services. The move will enhance both Zain and Vodafone's ability to meet growing demand among multinational businesses for sophisticated voice and data communications solutions as well as advanced roaming services within the Middle East. This will complement Vodafone's own regional operations in Egypt and Qatar and increase the number of countries in which Vodafone has Partner Market agreements to more than 50. Zain will have access to Vodafone's devices and services in its home markets and become the preferred partner of Vodafone in respect of the agreed areas of cooperation. Vodafone and Zain will work together to provide customers with enhanced network coverage, harmonized roaming rates across multiple countries with greater cost efficiencies and Zain will be able to use the Vodafone brand. Vodafone's multinational customers served by Vodafone Global Enterprise will benefit by being able to add the Zain countries to their existing contracts for international managed services, while continuing to be serviced via a single point of contact. Zain will similarly benefit from Vodafone's footprint. Vodafone also plans to support multinational corporations by providing communications expenditure tracking and procurement services while introducing innovative mobile price plans across the two organizations' shared area of operations. "The partnership with Vodafone will allow Zain to bring tangible benefits to both its customers and employees," said Zain Group Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer, Hisham Akbar. "This groundbreaking agreement will give our customers innovative products and services from around the world. At the same time, Vodafone's commercial insights and technical expertise will translate into significant operational efficiencies for Zain over the long-term as we transition our networks to next generation networks and beyond." – SG
