O2 has won its biggest corporate contract after signing up the AA. Alongside the contract with AA, O2 will benefit from a commercial agreement to provide “hands free” mobile phone packages to around 4.2 million AA members in Britain. O2 won the contract from Vodafone after a process and trial of its network. O2 declined quantifying the value of the agreement, but such deals are usually multi-million pound contracts. Competition for large contracts to supply businesses with mobile communications services has increased over the past year as consumer voice tariffs and roaming charges have dropped rapidly as a result of competition and regulatory pressure. O2 will provide over 5,000 voice connections and more than 3,000 data connections to AA service staff across the UK. With more than 5,000 vehicles on the road, the demands on the AA’s telecoms supplier are “incredibly exacting when it comes to overall network performance on coverage, resilience and speed”, said the AA. The strength of O2’s data network was especially important during the trial, as it is essential to managing work flow across the AA’s service fleet. The AA fixes about 80 per cent of UK breakdowns, thus efficient management of its fleet of on-road workers is critical to its operations. Trevor Didcock, AA, said: “Creating value and benefits for our members is paramount to our success, and to that end O2 make an excellent partner.”
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