An alliance between Britain's Vodafone Group Plc and Telekom Austria AG's mobile unit will extend the Vodafone brand and services to Austria, Croatia and Slovenia, according to local press reports. Vodafone is using the alliance as a means of accessing the markets without taking a stake in the local operators.

The alliance will enable Telekom Austria's mobile unit, Mobilkom Austria, a relatively tiny player with 4.26 million customers, to benefit from some of Vodafone's products and services.

Vodafone is Europe's largest wireless phone operator with some 107 million customers. Under the agreement, Vodafone and the Mobilkom Austria group, which includes Croatian operator VIPnet and Slovenian operator Si.mobil, will jointly develop and market global services. Mobilkom will promote Vodafone's global services under dual logos.

The two operators will share revenue from the services, although the details were not disclosed. The services will be introduced in the three countries during the first half of 2003, the companies said.

(NewsBase 10.i.03)