O2 invests £2 million into channel ecosystem

Money

O2 plans to splash out the cash as soon as next year arrives, by earmarking 2 million to support its existing and future channel partners.

The investment pot will complement existing channel funding, according to O2, and be awarded to partners old and new in exchange for new connections on the O2 network.

"Our channel partners are critical to our success and we have a strong belief in them as a community. As such, we invest a lot of money each year supporting the partner channel and have seen the results of that investment in terms of constant and continuing growth," said Ben Dowd, Telefonica O2's business sales director, in a statement.

"This additional fund shows our appetite to help secure the future success and profitability of our entire partner channel. Ultimately, we are taking the pain away for our customers and providing them with access to the very best technology."

Customers are also set to benefit from greater attention in 2010 as O2 will ensure more of them get the special treatment provided by its Centre of Excellence partners.

"Not only are we making a serious commitment to giving our current and prospective partners a fantastic incentive to secure more business in the first half of 2010, but we trust them so much we're giving them access to our customers. Customers want to be managed locally and our partners do a better job for them on a local level," Dowd added.

The past year has been a busy one for O2. During the last 12 months it lost lost iPhone exclusivity in the UK but gained an exclusive hold over the Palm Pre. Just last month, O2 also announced plans to build 1,500 more network sites in the UK next year.

Clearly, it plans further assault on the competition in the market in 2010, according to Dowd.

"We want to put clear blue water between us and the competition and look forward to all partners taking us up on this offer," he concluded.

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.