VEON hands core technology operations to Amdocs in 10-year deal

VEON has signed a 10-year agreement under which Amdocs will run and continuously modernise the operator group's core technology operations, the two companies said in a joint statement on 7 October.

The statement, datelined Dubai, Almaty and Jersey City, says Amdocs will also provide long-term cost predictability across VEON's IT operations in Eurasia. Neither company disclosed the value of the contract.

The Amdocs release says Amdocs will use certain intellectual property rights of QazCode, a VEON group company, and integrate QazCode's technology into aOS, its agentic operating system for telecom operators. QazCode is the exclusive digital partner of Beeline Kazakhstan and has more than 750 employees, the statement says. Its portfolio includes private large language models, full-cycle implementation of business support systems and IT outsourcing, and it works in Central Asia, Europe and the Middle East, the release adds. The statement does not say whether any QazCode staff or assets will move to Amdocs, or whether QazCode will keep its other customers.

Kaan Terzioglu, VEON's chief executive, said in the VEON release that digital and AI services already account for "about 27% of VEON's Group revenue". Anthony Goonetilleke, group president for new growth horizons at Amdocs, said in the same statement that the agreement "expands Amdocs' presence in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the wider Eurasia region".

VEON describes itself in the release as serving more than 150 million connectivity customers and more than 228 million digital customers across five countries. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the two corridor markets named, and Beeline Kazakhstan is the only operating company mentioned. The statement does not list which operating companies' systems fall under the agreement, how the transfer of operations will be phased, or whether existing IT supply contracts in those markets will be replaced.

The deal is an outsourcing arrangement rather than an acquisition: the release describes Amdocs using QazCode intellectual property rights, not buying the company. The financial effect on VEON's costs is not quantified. VEON is due to report its third-quarter results on 6 November, according to a company announcement, which would be the first set of accounts published since the agreement was signed.