Vittorio Colao

Rivals gear up to compete with Vodafone 360; 3UK partnership idea floated

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:28:03 -0400

With the announcement of Vodafone 360 attracting all-round comment, the company does appear to have beaten its rivals who are said to be planning to launch similar Internet services offerings.

What Vodafone 360 has achieved, according to IDC analyst Jonathan Arber, is not another social networking platform, but an enhancement to customers' existing social networks. "360 allows users to bring together contacts and content from their existing social networks, and to share content to these networks. We expect to see more of this from other operators in the coming months," said Arber, declining to name which operators had competing services in development.

This move allows Vodafone to use its network assets to pull in new customers from a rapidly growing demographic of twenty-something consumers using their mobiles to access social networking sites. "It's not new but it is a refinement which pushes up to the next level and which will incorporate other social networks, allowing it to lock in new and existing customers," concluded Arber.

This service will be part of Vodafone's new AppStar service which will include new range of Internet services, covering music, games, mapping services, etc. In an attempt to combat the ongoing success of Apple's AppStore, Vodafone has launched a competition offering a total prize fund of €1m to inspire the best developers to produce applications for the new platform.

A key attribute of the new technology is its openness which works across all networks and from a large number of different mobile phones, and also that the technology will provide direct access to all of today's net-wide communication services, rather than to a Vodafone-specific community

Separately, following the revelation that Vodafone's CEO, Vittorio Colao, had been refused permission by the company's board to sell off overseas assets to bid for T-Mobile UK, industry observers are now floating another ‘consolidation strategy' for the company.

This revolves around the UK subsidiary mimicking the deal done in Australia where Vodafone and 3 agreed to merge their networks. Such a deal is understood to be an option in the UK if Hutchison decides to jump ship from its current negotiations with Orange UK and T-Mobile UK regarding network sharing.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

Vodafone's plans to revamp Internet services critical to future success

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:33:36 -0400

Faced with being labelled as little more than a dumb pipe, Vodafone is expected to announce a significant overhaul of its mobile Internet service. The move will see the Live! brand replaced with Vodafone 360, with a focus on social networking and mobile payment services.

The company, which has been increasingly viewed as having fallen behind rivals such as Apple and Google in mobile services, hired Pieter Knook from Microsoft last year to head its mobile internet group and devise a new strategy for Vodafone.

The plan will see the company improve access to social networking sites, providing subscribers with the chance to integrate several social networking sites on their mobiles, so they can see what their friends are doing without having to switch between different applications.

Included within this new strategy will be a move into using the billing relationship that Vodafone has with its customers to help them purchase apps and other content without the need for a credit card and the associated risk of online fraud. The company CEO, Vittorio Colao, gave his blessing to this approach, commenting that "I truly believe mobile accounts are a fantastic payment platform for all digital goods."

The challenge Vodafone has set itself has to be seen in the light of its lack of success with past attempts to turn consumer-focused mobile Internet services into a large revenue generator. Terence Sinclair, an analyst at Citi, estimates that 10 per cent of the company's £3.1 billion of data revenue in 2008-09 came from services such as music downloads, and a further 10-15 per cent came from e-mail. Sinclair added that about 75 per cent of Vodafone's data revenue consisted of monthly charges for providing basic access to the wireless Internet.

For more on this story:
Financial Times

Vodafone expected to cut costs by over 1bn euros next year

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:28:02 -0500

The new CEO of Vodafone, Vittorio Colao, is expected to show his mettle in the New Year by instigating a cost-cutting programme to fulfil his promise to save over €1 billion. In particular, the most costly region of Vodafone's straggling empire, Western Europe, will be the prime focus for reducing expense, with Italy, Spain and the UK first on the firing line (although Vodafone Ireland has just announced a headcount reduction of 150 people).

The axe is thought to be hovering over supply-chain departments and new equipment orders, while outsourcing is being considered for logistics, procurement, IT and technology operations. Vodafone has already centralised its handset procurement offices by moving to a single office based in Luxembourg--a country with an advantageous tax regime.

For more:
- go to Mobile Today

Related articles:
Rumour mill: Is Vodafone about to issue a profits warning?
Vodafone reports jump in revenue, lowers outlook for year

Vodafone seals Vodacom deal, but faces new competition

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:47:12 -0400

After months of speculation Vodafone has acquired control of the South African-based Vodacom for US$2.48 billion. The investment gives Vodafone control of South Africa's biggest mobile operator, together with a vital foothold in booming African markets and signals its intent to keep pace with its rival Orange where France Telecom's emerging markets play is concentrated.

If the deal goes ahead, which would see Vodafone owning 65 per cent of operations in South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania, the company could face increased competition from its former parent, Telkom South Africa.

Up until now Telkom's shareholder agreement limited its ability to offer mobile services. However, this could now change with a new shareholder dispensation enabling Telkom to target the rapidly expanding market for broadband and mobile data services.

Commenting on the acquisition, John Delaney, research director at IDC, said that the investment was an indication that Vodafone's new CEO, Vittorio Colao, was evidently intent on maintaining the momentum in Vodafone's drive to spread the red rectangle around the globe.

For more on this story:
- go to telecoms.com

Related articles:
Vodafone in bidding war for South African Telkom. Vodafone story
Emerging markets too pricey, says Vodafone chairman. Vodafone story

Vodafone refocuses management structure on emerging markets

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:45:35 -0400

With the revenues from Europe slowing, Vodafone's new CEO, Vittorio Colao, has dramatically reshaped the senior management with greater emphasis on emerging markets -- an area becoming increasingly critical to the future success of the company.

Paul Donovan, the existing head of Vodafone's emerging markets, which includes the unwieldy grouping of Central Europe/Africa and Asia Pacific, has 'resigned' as a result. This region, which generates more than a quarter of Vodafone's turnover, will be split and run by two, as yet unnamed, senior executives.

But these moves have stoked the rumour mill as to what the company will do with its Verizon shareholding and how it can charm Vivendi into releasing hold of SFR, the No. 2 operator in France.

That Colao is taking the US operation for himself shows how important it has become, and the appointment of Frenchman Michel Combes to CEO of Vodafone Europe is intriguing. Who better than a Frenchman to help orchestrate a move on Vivendi, which at a mere €29 billion and with no controlling shareholder, would be a small mouthful for the British giant.

For more on this story:
- go to The Times and The Telegraph

Related articles:
Emerging markets too pricey, says Vodafone chairman. Vodafone story
Top Emerging Global Wireless Markets. Report

Emerging markets too pricey, says Vodafone chairman

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:31:29 -0400

Having reported disappointing performances from its highly-penetrated European markets, Vodafone was able to salvage its reputation with strong growth from its investments in developing markets such as Turkey and India. However, the company's chairman, Sir John Bond, stated this week that breaking into these fast-growing countries--naming Russia and Brazil as potential targets, was proving to be increasingly difficult. "There is nothing for sale, and it would be a big challenge for us to agree to a price that would be beneficial to the shareholders. We find price expectations in these markets are quite high."

However, Vodafone's new CEO, Vittorio Colao, clearly wanted to follow his predecessor, Arun Sarin, by focusing on emerging markets with the hope that a deal could be struck shortly to acquire a majority holding in South Africa's Vodacom. The likelihood of this coming to fruition has moved closer over the last few days with the announcement from Vodacom that it has signed an agreement to bring on board a number of black investment groups as part of the country's move to increase black economic empowerment. Vodafone would have to have added black investors to its deal and Vodacom's move means any deal should progress more smoothly, with the new investors retaining their shareholdings.

Speaking about the financial difficulties consumers are facing, Colao said that these economic challenges will need to be understood and new initiatives launched. "I don't think these issues will slow us down, but times change and we need to do things slightly differently. If families feel constrained we are going to give more SIM-only deals, lower prices, maybe less fancy handsets and maybe the handset renewal times will be pushed a little bit further."

For more on this story:
- go to the Financial Times and Guardian

Related stories:
Orange looks to expand into emerging markets. Orange story
Spain disappoints, but emerging markets boost Vodafone. Vodafone story