Procurement JV to be called BUYIN
Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom-Orange have received regulatory clearance for their joint procurement operation. The division will start operating on Monday 17 October under the name Buyin.
Led by by Volker Pyrtek, previously Chief Procurement Officer at Deutsche Telekom, Buyin’s procurement activities will cover terminal devices, mobile communications networks, and “significant portions” of the oprators’ fixed-network equipment and service platforms. Although head-quartered in Brussels, a total of around 250 employees will work at main sites in Paris and Bonn once all positions have been filled.
After three years, the operators want the JV to save them €1.3 billion on an annual basis – with FT saving €900 million and DT €400 million per year.
The partners announced the formation of a procurement joint venture in London in mid-April 2011 as the outcome of exploratory talks on partnerships in the field of technology. The two companies had already announced at the end of February that they intended to look at possibilities for cooperation in various technological areas.
In addition to the joint use of radio access networks in Europe, WiFi roaming and machine-to-machine (M2M) services, where a cooperation between Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom-Orange and TeliaSonera has already been announced, additional possibilities for cooperation in other growth areas will also be examined.