Vodafone has inked a 10-year, multi-billion pound deal with Google, as the telco seeks to broaden its digital experience with the addition of AI and cloud-based customer solutions, such as the Google Cloud and Google Gemini models.

The initiative will allow Vodafone's customers in 15 countries and its partners in 45 other countries worldwide to access YouTube subscription-based solutions and Google One subscription plans, such as storage plans and AI Premium plans, as well as a range of Pixel and other Android devices.

The company also aims to upgrade its Vodafone TV by deploying advanced Google Cloud genAI features to provide additional content discovery capabilities, rewards and offers for a more personalised experience. In addition, Vodafone said it plans to implement advertising via Google Ad Manager in the future.

Margherita Della Valle, group chief executive of Vodafone, said the partnership will put new content and devices based on artificial intelligence into the hands of millions of consumers.

“Using these services, our customers can discover new ways to learn, create and communicate, as well as consume TV, on a scale we haven’t seen before,” she continued.

In a statement, the two companies unveiled a new data repository technology that hosts Vodafone's data and its existing AI and data analytics services on Google Cloud to improve security, cyber protection and adherence to legal requirements.

Vodafone also said that the implementation of Google Cloud's enterprise-ready AI platform Vertex AI, will help increase the speed and ease with which Vodafone's operating systems launch new products.

“Our expanded partnership with Vodafone will help bring our most advanced AI products and services, including our Gemini models, to more people across Europe and Africa,” added Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and Alphabet. “I’m excited to see how Vodafone’s consumers, small businesses and governments, will use generative AI and Google Cloud to transform the way they work and access information.”

Earlier this year, Vodafone said it would invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years in customer-centric cloud and AI services through a partnership with Microsoft. The agreement included strengthening the digital business, with key areas of collaboration including the implementation of generative AI for personalised customer experiences, IoT scaling, digital acceleration strategies focused on growth in Africa and cloud transformation across channels.

Commenting on the partnership with Microsoft, Della Valle previously said: “The partnership will accelerate the digital transformation of our business customers, particularly small and medium-sized companies, and step up the quality of customer experience for consumers.”

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