- Liberty Global has struck a five-year deal with Google Cloud
- The move will help the international operator ‘embed AI at scale’ in its European operations
Liberty Global and Google Cloud have struck a five-year strategic partnership that, through three key pillars, will “accelerate Liberty Global’s digital transformation and embed AI at scale throughout its European operations”.
The first is “AI-driven customer value”, which involves embedding Google Cloud’s AI technologies with Liberty Global’s Horizon TV platform and customer care operations that interact with about 80 million customers across Europe.
The second is “cloud optimisation”, which involves the partners collaborating on “AI-first programs to improve telecom system and network scalability, security and data sovereignty and drive cost efficiencies”.
Liberty Global says it will “work with Google Cloud to accelerate the development of autonomous network operations – proactively detecting performance issues, executing corrective actions and reducing manual interventions”.
The partners will also “explore opportunities to optimise use of capacity across Liberty Global’s network and identify potential opportunities to unlock additional datacentre capacity for Google Cloud, including through Liberty Global’s Atlas Edge joint venture.”
The third pillar, “new growth opportunities”, focuses on the SME sector. Liberty Global will work with Google Cloud on “go-to-market initiatives to drive sales of Google, third-party and its own solutions for SMEs, including a portfolio of offerings in cloud, cybersecurity and AI services.”
Liberty Global will also “explore potential data monetisation initiatives to unlock the value of its telco data, whilst prioritising security and data privacy.”
The Liberty Global operations set to benefit from the partnership are Virgin Media O2 in the UK (in which Liberty Global holds a 50% stake), Telenet in Belgium, VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands (another 50% joint venture) and Virgin Media in Ireland, as well as Sunrise in Switzerland, which was spun out of Liberty Global in 2024 but still outsources certain functions and operations to Liberty Global, including those related to technology.
- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV
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