EE enters wholesale channel with Giacom in distribution partnership

BT-owned mobile network EE is set to enter the UK wholesale channel for the first time through a new partnership with Giacom, marking a strategic shift in how the operator plans to reach business customers. 

Speaking at Giacom’s Connect Live event in London today, Sam Johnson, Indirect Channel Partner Manager at BT EE, said the move reflects changing customer buying behaviour and a recognition that the indirect channel is now critical to future growth.

“For a long time, EE perhaps didn’t see this, and we weren’t present within the wholesale channel. We saw the best route to scale and to end customers as direct,” Johnson told delegates. “However, from today, all that changes.”

Johnson said business customers no longer want to buy connectivity “in isolation”, but instead in the context of their wider business needs, pain points and desired outcomes.

“They want it to be secure, fast and reliable and tailored to them – and that’s where you come in,” he said. “Partners like you are the closest to the customer. You understand all of their trials and tribulations better than the network can.”

He added that the channel should be seen as a “hidden superpower” and acknowledged that EE’s historic absence from wholesale had been “a bit of a glaring omission”.

The partnership with Giacom, is intended to give EE a route to scale rapidly through indirect sales.

“Once EE made the business decision to enter the wholesale channel market, the objective was growth and scale, and that’s where Giacom stands out,” Johnson said. “They’re the most established name in the business mobile channel space, with one of the largest UK bases around.”

Johnson said the agreement was “partner-led” from the outset and required “some difficult conversations internally” at BT EE about how the operator needed to change its approach to make the model work for resellers.

“As many of you will know, BT owns EE, and to be completely honest, it is quite a rigid, slow beast,” he said. “We had to have a lot of difficult conversations internally to really drive something that’s going to work well for you guys.”

He credited both Giacom and the EE team for collaborating on a model designed to be easier for partners to sell at scale.

“In days gone by, when EE’s been in the marketplace, it’s been seen as quite clunky,” Johnson said. “Our goal is to address that and create something that is seamless, automated and can be sold at scale to partners alike.”

Automation, simplicity and scalability will sit at the heart of the new wholesale proposition, with EE aiming not just to match rival networks but to “go beyond” them.\

“We shouldn’t just be looking at how we can operate on a level playing field,” Johnson said. “We want to be a best-in-class solution and ultimately make up for lost time.”

He said Giacom had played a key role as a “trusted technology partner” in shaping the agreement and helping EE tackle the operational challenges involved in building a scalable wholesale platform.

Looking ahead, Johnson positioned the move as a way for EE to claw back market share from rival networks and grow its presence in the business mobile space.

“From EE’s perspective, we’ve probably got 60% of market share to go after with the other networks,” he said. “We’re here to bring the best network, best-in-class automation, with a best-in-class sales function in Giacom and really drive scale and volume with the EE network.”

He added: “If we don’t, those connections are going to continue to go to the other networks and they’re going to grow and we’re going to stay behind. That’s why this partnership was so important to drive forward.”