Despite the name, Telekom Serbia is not part of Deutsche Telekom group and is instead mostly state-owned. As the former state monopoly, it’s the dominant landline player as well as accounting for around half of the mobile market. Vodafone Group, of course, doesn’t have a presence in Serbia, which is what allows it to help out other operators there via its Partner Markets program, telecoms.com reports.

“We are delighted to welcome Telekom Serbia to our partner market family and look forward to working together to bring the benefits of our knowledge and expertise to their customers in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina,” said Vodafone Partner Markets & Carrier Services Chief Executive Diego Massidda.

“We are confident that our cooperation with Vodafone, one of the world’s leaders in this trade, will provide us with access to all important resources in the sphere of digital transformation, and make it possible for us to increase the efficiency of our operations, optimize costs and improve customer experience,” said Telekom Serbia Chief Executive Vladimir Lučić.

The Vodafone announcement was thin on specifics, but it looks like digital best practice is one of the main areas involved, which is consistent with Vodafone’s broader ambitions in that arena. Vodafone is also offering is procurement services, thus passing on the economies of scale available to such a large company. Vodafone Partner Markets works with 32 companies in 49 countries, so this is a fairly well-trodden path.