Vodafone and HSBC extend telecoms partnership

Multi-million pound deal sees Vodafone continue to support 21,000 HSBC employees

Vodafone and HSBC have decided to extend their 20-year telecommunications partnership by another two years.

The multi-million pound deal will see Vodafone continue to manage the mobile communications of over 21,000 HSBC employees until 2015.

"It is important to ensure our employees have the best tools to serve our customers and we believe that this contract extension will meet their needs," said Gabriel Pepe, global head of telecommunications and client technologies at HSBC.

"World class businesses need world class mobile communications. We welcome the opportunity to strengthen further our long standing relationship with HSBC," added Jan Geldmacher, CEO for Vodafone Global Enterprise.

Vodafone has begun rolling out 4G mobile data services across London, Leeds and Bradford. The rollout was supposed to begin earlier this summer, but was delayed as Vodafone was unable to overcome the technical restrictions affecting the portion of the mobile data spectrum it secured at Ofcom's auction earlier this year.

Last month, it was revealed Vodafone CIO Mark Dearnley is to leave the mobile company to become chief digital and information officer at HM Revenue & Customs' - a role he'll begin next month.