Du talks up partnership benefits with Vodafone

Du CEO Osman Sultan believes its long-term partnership with Vodafone will benefit UAE customers both locally and when they travel abroad.

At a press conference to discuss Du's exclusive partner agreement with Vodafone announced in January this year, it was revealed that the company became the forty second global operator to sign on with Vodafone. 

Vodafone has nearly 315 million customers worldwide and was recently in the news for going beyond traditional applications to announce its Vodafone 360 set of internet services for the mobile and PC.

Under the terms of the agreement, Du has exclusive access to Vodafone's range of products, devices and services in the UAE. Sultan hinted at attractive roaming rates, new enterprise offerings and exclusive handsets through Vodafone in the future, but refused to go into specifics.

The non-equity partnership was instigated by Vodafone who approached Du with the intention of making inroads in the UAE, with Vodafone's Partner Markets CEO Richard Daly revealing that it would never extend its presence in the country as an operator or direct competitor to Du and Etisalat.

Du on the other hand, is focusing on servicing only UAE customers, with Sultan revealing that the company will spend AED 2.6 billion on network infrastructure alone this year.

"We always said, in the past two years and a half, that this (network) was our highest priority. There was not single day when we didn't add base stations. Are we done? Of course not. But believe me, our network is better today than yesterday, will be better tomorrow than today, and so on. And this is a long journey," he added.