The companies plan to cooperate in four main areas; IPVPN, managed services, network resources and Wifi roaming. The partnership will initially address their wholesale and enterprise segments, focussing on improving access and services for Orange’s business customers in China and likewise China Telecom’s in Europe.
In the future, Orange customers will benefit from access to Wifi hotspots in China, while China Telecom’s customs will have access to Orange’s Wifi hotspots across Europe.
Orange’s chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard claimed China Telecom were “one of the most important players in the Asia-Pacific region”.
“Both parties are set to benefit from close cooperation by enabling each other to provide better customer access and services in our respective regions and support the development of our multinational business customers internationally, he added.
The IPVN cooperation agreement will see China telecom receive access to Orange’s IPVN footprint across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, allowing the Chinese carrier to extend its IPVN services for subsidiaries of Chinese multinational companies.
Under the managed services agreement, China Telecom will provide managed outsourced and field services to Orange’s multinational customers in China to allow Orange to improve IPVPN services to its enterprise customers in China and other Asia-Pacific countries.
The network resources agreement will focus on complementing each company’s network development planning and deployment in their respective regions, particularly focussing on subsea and terrestrial cable links between Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa.
China Telecom’s chairman of the board, Wang Xiaochu, labelled the move as “an important part of the foreign cooperation strategy by China Telecom”.
“The signing of the cooperation framework will definitely promote closer cooperation between both parties in the relevant business areas, therefore realising the ambition of servicing customers globally,” he added.