Etisalat and FT sign MoU

Etisalat has signed a memorandum of understanding with France Telecom (FT), signalling their intention to collaborate in areas of strategic importance for both companies.

Etisalat chairman, Omran is keen to leverage the telco’s relationship with FT on a number of fronts, including broadband and film content

Signed in Paris on July 2 by Etisalat’s chairman Mohammad Omran, and France Telecom’s chairman and CEO, Didier Lombard, the agreement outlines a number of key areas of collaboration. These include home networking solutions and multiplay services; content acquisition and distribution; joint investment in co production of films; international roaming; and joint investment in submarines cables.

“This agreement with France Telecom will leverage the technological expertise and deep customer insight of both companies to offer the latest services to customers in a converged IP environment across the markets we operate,” commented Omran.

Etisalat stands to gain by leveraging FT’s experience and existing technologies, one of the world’s largest telecoms companies with a subscriber base of 172 million across five continents. FT also owns the Orange Business Services enterprise services franchise.

In the area of home networking solutions and multiple-play services, the French company’s home gateway system dubbed ‘Orange Livebox’ and its IPTV set-up-box called ‘Orange TV’ is of special interest to Etisalat as it pursues its fibre to the home deployment across the UAE. The Orange-branded technologies have already been rolled out to more than 6.8 million customers in Europe.

Etisalat also plans to become a shareholder in SoftAtHome, a company launched jointly by FT, Sagem and Thomson, which aims to facilitate the deployment and interoperability of digital equipment in the home, but it is unknown as to what percentage stake Etisalat will pursue. Etisalat intends to use SoftAtHome solutions to launch multiple-play offers in its international markets.

Etisalat and FT are also currently evaluating the opportunity to acquire, aggregate and/or market specific content to be distributed on their respective footprints. This includes working together so that Etisalat can distribute the multi-player online game Warhammer, and a joint investment with Studio 37, FT’s subsidiary dedicated to investing in films, in the co-production of films and audiovisual programmes.

The two parties have also agreed to put in place preferred international roaming within each operator’s geographic footprint with the aim to optimise international coverage for their customers, and optimise voice and data roaming traffic.

Etisalat and FT will also pursue possible joint investments in submarine cables to build capacity to serve areas of strategic interest to both parties such as west Africa where they both operate, including having a better link between Middle East and Europe across the Mediterranean sea.