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Vodafone, Google Deepen AI Ties to Bring New Services Across Africa & Europe

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Vodafone and Google on Tuesday announced a ten-year strategic expansion of their existing partnership to bring new services, devices, and TV experiences to millions of Vodafone’s customers across Europe and Africa, supported by Google Cloud and Google’s Gemini 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.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive, 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,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “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.”

Leading the Way in Enhanced Consumer Experiences

A key focus of the Vodafone and Google partnership is to help consumers take advantage of the latest hardware and digital technologies, including AI and cloud-based applications. Vodafone and Google will work together to improve and expand the range of products and services available in stores and online, supported with a refreshed customer experience rooted in the benefits of AI. Google and Vodafone are working towards enabling Vodafone 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.

Vodafone and Google will work towards enhancing Vodafone TV (which is powered by Android TV), using Google Cloud’s advanced gen AI capabilities to provide additional content discovery features, rewards, and offers, as well as content monetization with Google Ad Manager to deliver a better ads experience. The teams are also exploring a more deeply-integrated YouTube experience across Vodafone TV devices.

Digital Transformation & Security: Powered by Google Cloud’s gen AI

Vodafone and Google Cloud already have a strong track record 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 to ensure maximum security and adherence to legal requirements. With the expanded partnership, Vodafone will 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. This will help increase the speed and ease with which Vodafone’s operating companies in multiple countries can innovate and launch new products.

Through this partnership, Vodafone aims to offer its business customers enhanced cyber protection with its own soon-to-be-developed cloud-native cybersecurity solution, utilising Google Cloud’s Security Operations platform. It will provide security incident and event management, as well as the latest software-based protection tools. Vodafone will also use Google Cloud’s Security Operations platform when developing certain products and services to further ensure that they are secure by design to help keep customers safe online.

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. Through this partnership, Vodafone will put AI-powered cloud, content, and connectivity into the hands of more people.


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

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Hotspot, Clear Blue Consortium Ink MOU for Solar-Powered Mobile Sites

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Hotspot, Nigerian last-mile connectivity and tower operator, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium led by Clear Blue Technologies, solar-power company to deploy 312 solar powered mobile sites across Nigeria.

Hotspot, Clear Blue Consortium Ink MOU for Solar-Powered Mobile Sites

Under the deal signed earlier this week at Mobile World Congress 2025, the sites will feature Clear Blue’s Illumience Smart Power solar solution designed for telecoms infrastructure.

The Clear Blue consortium also includes Empower New Energy, which provides clean energy project financing across Africa, and Netis, which specialises in operating and managing telecom infrastructure and will the installation, operations, and maintenance services for the project.

Miriam Tuerk, CEO, Clear Blue, said the consortium has the expert skills and capabilities to quickly design, build and operate the network, solar power and tower sites.

“As everyone active in the telecom market in Africa is aware, it is a difficult operating environment with challenging TCO targets. And yet, it is probably the largest untapped telecom market in the world with significant growth potential”, said, Morenikeji Aniye, CEO, Hotspot.

“Clear Blue brings an innovative technology and service capability which, together with an innovative business model and structure, enables us to deploy and operate these sites while meeting stringent service and TCO targets.”

Clear Blue noted that the deal is subject to final contract negotiations and signatures.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, Hotspot will roll out the solar-powered sites at the end of this year.

 


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More Clients Turn to Glo’s Bulk Data Service

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Technology company, Globacom, has been experiencing substantial increase in the adoption of its Bulk Data services by enterprise clients. This surge reinforces the appeal of Glo’s innovative data solution among corporate organizations, schools, and tertiary institutions.

Glo’s Bulk Data offering is a user-friendly self-service portal that enables enterprise customers to gift data to other customers. This feature allows sponsors to allocate specific data amounts for free navigation of mobile apps or websites, with the sponsor covering the costs.

The service is particularly beneficial for educational institutions, which can purchase the Schools’ Bucket Data plan for students’ academic usage, valid for 90 days.

The Gifted Data Plan on its part, is available for a 30 days validity and offers flexibility, allowing sponsors to gift data to multiple Glo subscribers in various sizes, ranging from 200MB to 10GB, depending on the Pack the Gifting customer has subscribed to.

Sponsors can also customize SMS notifications to beneficiaries, setting Glo’s product apart from others in the market. Beneficiaries can easily check their balance by dialing *127*0# on their devices.

Glo’s Bulk Data service has become an attractive solution for enterprise clients seeking efficient data management, thanks to its flexibility, customization options, and user-friendly features.

The Bulk Data service is designed specifically for bulk data buyers, including corporate entities, schools, and tertiary institutions.


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MTN Strengthens Local Content Policy with Nord and GAC Partnership

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MTN Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading ICT companies, has partnered with automobile giants, Nord and GAC Motors to reinforce its commitment to its local content policy and support made in Nigeria products.

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MTN

This partnership involved the procurement of a combined total of 33 cars for MTN’s customer-facing teams in Lagos and the North, including 22 locally assembled vehicles from Nord and GAC Motors, highlighting a strong commitment to local manufacturing. The additional purchase of 11 other cars further strengthened this operational initiative. These cars, essential tools of trade, play a key role in MTN’s customer engagement strategy, allowing their teams to commute to the field easily to deliver on targets.

In July 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) established the Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NIDOTS), an office charged with the primary responsibility of ensuring the promotion of indigenous content in the Nigerian telecoms sector, through the enforcement of the Nigerian National Local Content Policy. This national policy serves as the framework for MTN’s local content commitments, supporting the Nigerian Federal Government in developing sustainable local societies, while championing digital and financial inclusion.

At a handover ceremony held at MTN’s Lagos Headquarters, Lynda Saint Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, expatiated on MTN’s content policy and the relevance of this partnership. “At MTN, we maintain a stance on promoting local content development in Nigeria by enabling local supply chains through local procurement.”

Saint Nwafor further detailed how this partnership supports MTN’s logistics model: “We had some challenges over the years. The logistics model we initially wanted to adopt didn’t work, so we had to revert to the old model.

“This model allows our sales and client success teams to better commute to customer locations.”

MTN Nigeria remains committed to creating shared value and playing a positive and meaningful role in creating a sustainable and inclusive country.


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