Following approval by the relevant anti-trust authorities, an agreement between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom to share procurement of network infrastructure will come into effect next week. A newly formed joint-venture company, which also has operational units in France and Germany, will be headed by Volker Pyrtek (52), previously Chief Procurement Officer at Deutsche Telekom.
The parent companies have pooled their procurement activities in the areas of terminal devices, mobile communications networks, and in significant portions of their fixed-network equipment and service platforms in a 50:50 joint venture. In addition, the two companies intend to launch pilot projects to explore other areas for inclusion in the joint venture at a later stage, including IT infrastructure and further IT areas. The inclusion of additional fixed-network components will be looked at by the German Federal Cartel Office.
The joint venture is expected to generate an annual run-rate of procurement savings of EUR 1.3 billion after three years of implementation.
"We are very pleased to have received approval from appropriate anti-trust authorities for our procurement cooperation with France Telecom-Orange. Now we can start working together to tap into the large and growing potential savings from joint procurement," said Edward R. Kozel, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Deutsche Telekom.
The worldwide savings for Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange three years after the start of operations are targeted at above EUR 400 million per year and below EUR 900 million per year respectively.
A total of around 250 employees will work at the main sites in Paris and Bonn once all positions have been filled. Most of them will come from the procurement units of both companies.
In addition to the joint use of radio access networks in Europe, Wi-Fi roaming and machine-to-machine (M2M) services, where a cooperation between Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom-Orange and TeliaSonera has already been announced, additional possibilities for cooperation in other growth areas will also be examined.
Source: http://www.cellular-news.com/story/51335.php
