Extending its wide-ranging strategic relationship with Vodafone, Oracle has picked the giant mobile-phone operator to supply more than 16,000 Oracle EMEA employees with voice, data, and management services.Vodafone is in turn a major customer for Oracle, and late last year was among the group of customers that spoke before the European Union on behalf of Oracle's intention to acquire Sun. That testimony from a number of customers-including several that, like Vodafone, are based in Europe-played a crucial role in the EU's ultimate decision to allow the acquisition to go through. (See Global CIO: Oracle Customer Comments Will Force EU To Yield.)

In a Reuters article, Vodafone Global Enterprise chief executive Nick Jeffery cited the benefits of his company's "per-user pricing model" and said the deal will improve the efficiency not only for Oracle's mobile communications but also its fixed operations.

Vodafone, claiming to be the world's largest mobile-phone operator by revenue, said the Oracle EMEA deal spans four years.

It will be interesting to see if Oracle and Vodafone find a way to extend their wide-ranging relationship to enhance the delivery of Oracle applications to mobile devices. With more and more businesses turning to smartphones and other mobile devices as essential computing and information-access devices, the need for rich delivery of enterprise apps will continue to grow-and to date, market leaders Oracle and SAP have not distinguished themselves in making such mobile connectivity available.