Twelve O2 partners have severed all ties with the UK’s other mobile network providers to become exclusive partners to the carrier.
This follows the news in April that Barclay Communications had become O2’s first exclusive partner in Northern Ireland.
The new Centre of Excellence partners include Active Business Communications Ltd, ADSI Ltd, Aerial Telephones Group Ltd, Atlas Communications Ltd, Cellular Solutions (North East) Ltd, Challenger Mobile Communications Ltd, Cygnet Holdings Limited, Direct Line Connections Ltd T/A Dialect, Total Ltd, Uplands Mobiles Ltd, Vivio Limited and Welcomm Communication Ltd.
O2 offers a ‘revenue share model’ to the selected partners. “There is a joint business plan, clear goals and investment on both sides, and we both know what getting out of it, David Plumb, O2’s head of SME sales tells Channel Pro.
“O2 was the first to introduce revenue sharing to mobile industry last October,” explains Plumb. “It creates long term stable commercial partnerships. We will give [partners]a share of the revenue – almost half – for keeping customers with O2. It’s a strong statement. It means we’re committing half our revenue long-term to resellers in this marketplace. Look at other mobile carriers who aren’t prepared to do that [and] pay for new business only – are they are committed to their mobile reseller channel?”
In addition to traditional mobile products, Plumb says O2 is also looking at other markets, citing substituting fixed lines for mobile. “In the UK, the comms market is broadly around £12bn in revenue – half is mobile and half fixed line. There are opportunities to go into extended and adjacent markets,” he says.
Plumb also said O2 would be looking to develop relationships with more IT VARs to reflect the convergence of IT with mobile infrastructure: “With more applications being used, customers really need an IT VAR for the implementation, integration, support and maintenance.”
