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Vodafonewatch issue 2010.02 Executive Brief

18 March 2010

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Executive Brief from Vodafonewatch, issue 2010.02. Click through for: an Extract from this month’s report; the Issue Snapshot; or to contact us for more information about the full 96-page issue, this industry standard monthly report service, and ongoing subscription access.

  1. GROUP: Vodafone Group’s Q3 FY09¬ 10 financial results contained cause for optimism, with revenue growth buoyed not just by continued favourable exchange rate movements but also improvement in underlying revenue trends. Positives were also apparent in the key challenge of offsetting voice revenue decline — Vodafone generated more than £1bn in quarterly data revenue for the first time, while organic fixed-line sales saw double digit growth. [pp.3-21.]
  2. Further changes were mooted at the top of Vodafone’s marketing hierarchy, with reports that Global Brand Director David Wheldon is to depart. [p.22.]
  3. Partnership activity remains high in the business-to-business market, with Vodafone Global Enterprise publicising a sizeable, four year contract from enterprise software ally Oracle, and forming a “strategic alliance” with Verizon Wireless to jointly market and manage machine-to-machine solutions in Europe and the USA. Vodafone’s early-2009 unified communications partnership with Microsoft also resurfaced in Spain. [pp.23,24,52.]
  4. Vodafone announced that Vodacom South Africa is to adopt the Group’s Money Transfer platform, although perhaps in not as much of a hurry as Vodafone would have liked to convey. [pp.25,27-29.]
  5. Vittorio Colao used February’s Mobile World Congress to warn of Google’s rising power in the mobile market. [pp.32-34.]
  6. WESTERN EUROPE: Vodafone’s roll out of HSPA network enhancements continued across Europe, with Vodafone Ireland the latest to launch the technology’s HSPA+ 64QAM iteration, and Polkomtel outlining plans to expand the same connectivity during 2010. Vodacom SA said it could deploy HSPA+ 64QAM in time for this summer’s FIFA World Cup , as part of wider network-bolstering plans for the tournament. Looking beyond HSPA, SFR is to work with Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks on trials of 4G infrastructure. [pp.42,48,61,69.]
  7. Friedrich Joussen, Chief Executive of Vodafone Germany, said financial discipline will continue to be a theme for the OpCo in 2010, with suggestions of: further headcount reductions; a deal to farm out directory assistance provision to local firm Telegate; and denials that it has entered the bidding for cable television operator Kabel Deutschland. The unit is, however, directing investment towards VDSL rollout, with plans to expand on a pilot project launched in 2009. [pp.44-46.]
  8. As mooted, Vodafone Germany debuted new ‘no-frills’ prepaid venture o.tel.o, offering simplified voice and data tariffs, while Vodafone Greece and Vodafone Romania also launched aggressive promotional efforts to acquire prepaid users. [pp.44,64.]
  9. Questions were raised over the security of access to Vodafone UK’s Twitter account, after an employee used broadcast a homophobic remark. [pp.55,56.]
  10. CENTRAL EUROPE: Agreement on Polkomtel’s long-mooted flotation appears to be still eluding the operator’s shareholders, with reports suggesting the sell-off may now not take place until Q310, if at all. [pp.60.]
  11. Vodafone Romania and Vodafone Turkey widened their VAS portfolios, with the former launching a custom mobile number offering, and the latter outsourcing its SIM application toolkit platform to Cetech, a Turkish VAS provider, with the promise of new content. Vodafone Turkey also reported “strong” uptake of a new, SIM-based “social address book” offering branded Vodafone Kartvizit. [pp.62,64,65.]
  12. AFRICA: Safaricom further bolstered bandwidth availability through a 20 year lease on fibre-optic capacity of Kenya Power & Lighting Company. The operator also recruited Indian software provider Comviva to deploy a new electronic top-up platform. [pp.67,68.]
  13. Vodacom SA, Vodafone Fiji, and Vodafone Portugal were all presented with the prospect of mobile termination rate cuts. [pp.50,68,76.]
  14. Vodacom Group continues to be dogged by controversy around ex CEO Alan Knott-Craig, in this case attracting criticism over ongoing payments to the former boss. [p.70.]
  15. ASIA-PACIFIC: A Vodafone Hutchison Australia employee was arrested, after allegedly attempting to steal hundreds of smartphones. [p.72.]
  16. China Mobile’s customer acquisition difficulties were again apparent in December 2009, which provided the operator’s worst monthly subscriber haul of the year, and saw its 3G user growth dwarfed by rival China Unicom. Government censorship also continued to be a public relations problem for the operator, with concerns being expressed over monitoring of SMS messages, and suggestions of potential spill-over to Vodafone, fuelled by Google’s recent threat to exit the country. Vodafone is among 30 multinationals that have been asked by US authorities to outline their practices in China. [pp.72-74.]
  17. India continues to offer a variety of regulatory challenges to Vodafone Essar, with inter-operator wrangling over spectrum allocation going public, and the operator responding to its latest ‘show-cause notice’ from India’s Income Tax Department. Infrastructure joint venture Indus Towers was also caught up in a high-profile dispute over unauthorised mast construction in the city of Noida. Similarly, tension over tower placement appears to be reaching new levels in Ghana, with the government banning construction of new telecoms masts in the country. [pp.66,77,78.]
  18. Bharti Airtel entered talks to buy out many of troubled Zain Group’s African assets, prospectively taking its rivalry with Vodafone inter continental. Vodafone New Zealand sought to exploit high-profile glitches with rival Telecom NZ’s 3G network. [pp.81,85,87.]
  19. MIDDLE EAST: Both Vodafone Egypt and Vodafone Qatar continue to come up against regulatory barriers to fixed-line expansion, with Egypt’s triple-play licence auction seemingly set for further delays, and Vodafone Qatar’s planned move into the emirate’s wireline sector appearing unlikely to take place until at least 2011, thanks to continued government indecision over how its future landline business will be structured. [p.88.]
  20. Increased demand is said to have swamped information exchange between Vodafone Qatar and roaming partners in recent weeks, causing billing delays. [p.89.]

About Vodafonewatch

Issue: 2010.02
Covering: February 2010
Published: March 2010
Next issue: March/April 2010

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Written by AB · Filed Under Vodafonewatch 

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