Vodafone Group plc
Type	Public (LSE: VOD, NYSE: VOD, FWB: VOD)
Founded	1983 as Racal Telecom, independent 1991
Headquarters	Newbury, England, UK
Key people	Vittorio Colao, CEO Sir John Bond, Chairman John Buchanan, Deputy Chairman
Industry	Mobile telecommunications
Products	Mobile networks, Telecom services, Etc.
Revenue	▲ £35,478 million GBP (2008)
Net income	▲ £10,047 million GBP (2008)
Website	www.vodafone.com

Vodafone is a mobile network operator headquartered in Berkshire, England, UK. It is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover and has a market value of about £75 billion (August 2008). Vodafone currently has equity interests in 25 countries and Partner Networks (networks in which it has no equity stake) in a further 42 countries. The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones."^[1]

At 31 March 2008 Vodafone had 260 million proportionate customers in 25 markets across 5 continents.^[2] ("Proportionate customers" means, for example, that if Vodafone has a 30% stake in a business with a million customers, that is counted as 300,000). On this measure it is the second largest mobile telecom group in the world behind China Mobile. The eight markets where it has more than ten million proportionate customers are the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and the United States. In the U.S., these customers come via its minority stake in Verizon Wireless, and in the other seven markets Vodafone has majority-controlled subsidiaries.

Vodafone in Europe

History

In 1982 Racal Electronics plc's subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. won one of two UK cellular telephone network licences.^[3][4] The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985.^[5] Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985.^[4] On 29 December 1986 Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of vodafone for GB£110 million.^[6]

In September 1988 the company was again renamed Racal Telecom and on 26 October 1988 Racal Electronics floated 20% of the company. The flotation valued Racal Telecom at GB£1.7 billion.^[7] On 16 September 1991 Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.^[8]

In July 1996 Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million.^[9] On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased Peoples Phone for £77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network.^[10] In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores.^[11]

In 1997 Vodafone introduced its Speechmark logo, as it is a quotation mark in a circle; the O's in the Vodafone logotype are opening and closing quotation marks, suggesting conversation.

On 29 June 1999 Vodafone completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. Trading of the new company commenced on 30 June 1999.^[12] To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk.^[13] The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.

vodafone's original logo used until the introduction of the speechmark logo in 1998.

On 21 September 1999 Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless.^[14] The merger was completed on 4 April 2000.

In November 1999 Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator.^[15] Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory.^[16] The hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000 the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of £112bn, then the largest corporate merger ever.^[16] The EU approved the merger in April 2000. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off.

On 28 July 2000 the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc. In April 2001 the first 3G voice call was made on Vodafone United Kingdom's 3G network.

Vodafone in Iaşi, Romania.

A map showing Vodafone's operations in Europe.      Vodafone      Vodafone's affiliates      Vodafone's partners

In 2001 the Company took over Eircell, then part of eircom in Ireland, and rebranded it as Vodafone Ireland. It then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan.

On 17 December 2001 Vodaphone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks" by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved the introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.)

In February 2002 Finland was added into the mobile community, as Radiolinja is signed as a Partner Network. Radiolinja later changed its named to Elisa. Later that year the Company rebranded Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as Vodafone live! and on 3 December 2002 the Vodafone brand was introduced in the Estonian market with signing of a Partner Network Agreement with Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti) later changed its name to Elisa.

On 7 January 2003 the Company signed a group-wide Partner agreement with mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia were added to the community. In April 2003 Og Vodafone was introduced in the Icelandic market and in May 2003 Vodafone Italy (Omnitel Pronto-Italia) was rebranded Vodafone Italy. On 21 July 2003 Lithuania was added to the community, with the signing of a Partner Network agreement with Bitė.

In February 2004 Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with Luxembourg's LuxGSM and a Partner Network Agreement with Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its mobile phone operations to Cytamobile-Vodafone. In April 2004 the Company purchased Singlepoint airtime provider from John Caudwell (Caudwell Group) and approx 1.5million customers onto its base for £405million, adding sites in Stoke on Trent (England) to existing sites in Newbury (HQ), Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury. In November 2004 Vodafone introduced 3G services into Europe.

In June 2005 the Company increased its participation in Romania's Connex to 99% and also bought the Czech mobile operator Oskar. On 1 July 2005 Oskar of the Czech Republic was rebranded as Oskar-Vodafone. Later that year on 17 October 2005 Vodafone Portugal launched a revised logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and a 3D version of the Speechmark logo, but still retaining a red background and white writing (or vice versa). Also, various operating companies started to drop the use of the SIM card pattern in the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-Vodafone and Connex-Vodafone also does not use the SIM card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on their font family InterFace) formed part of the new identity.

On 28 October 2005 Connex in Romania was rebranded as Connex-Vodafone and on 31 October 2005 the Company reached an agreement to sell Vodafone Sweden to Telenor for approximately €1 billion. After the sale, Vodafone Sweden became a Partner Network. In December 2005 Vodafone won an auction to buy Turkey's second-largest mobile phone company, Telsim, for $4.5 billion.^[17] In December 2005 Vodafone Spain became the second member of the group to adopt the revised logo: it was phased in over the following six months in other countries.

In 2006 the Company rebranded its Stoke-on-Trent site as Stoke Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company dealing with Customer Care for its higher value customers, technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations and upgrades started to be dealt with by this call centre. On 5 January 2006 Vodafone announced the completion of the sale of Vodafone Sweden to Telenor. On February 2006 the Company closed its Birmingham Call Centre. In 1 February 2006 Oskar Vodafone became Vodafone Czech Republic, adopting the revised logo and on 22 February 2006 the Company announced that it was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria group.

On 12 March 2006 former chief, Sir Christopher Gent, who was appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quits following rumours of boardroom rifts. In April 2006 the Company announced that it has signed an extension to its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its Latvian subsidiary "BITE Latvija" to become the latest member of Vodafone's global partner community. Also in April 2006 Vodafone Sweden changed its name to Telenor Sverige AB and Connex-Vodafone became Vodafone Romania, also adopting the new logo. On 30 May 2006 Vodafone announced the biggest loss in British corporate history (£14.9 billion) and plans to cut 400 jobs; it reported one-off costs of £23.5 billion due to the revaluation of its Mannesmann subsidiary. On 24 July 2006 the respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedly^[18] and on 25 August 2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for €2 billion. After the deal, Proximus was still part of the community as a Partner Network. On 5 October 2006 Vodafone announced the first single brand partnership with Og Vodafone which would operate under the name Vodafone Iceland and on 19 December 2006 the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Switzerland's Swisscom for CHF4.25 billion (£1.8 billion). After the deal, Swisscom would still be part of the community as a Partner Network. Finally in December 2006 the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK, signaling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the ICT marketplace.

Early in January 2007 Telsim in Turkey adopted Vodafone dual branding as Telsim Vodafone and on 1 April 2007 Telsim Vodafone Turkey dropped its original brand and became Vodafone Turkey. On 1 May 2007 Vodafone added Jersey and Guernsey to the community, as Airtel was signed as Partner Network in both crown dependencies. In June 2007 the Vodafone live! mobile Internet portal in the UK was relaunched. Front page was now charged for and previously "bundled" data allowance was removed from existing contract terms.^[19] All users were given access to the "full" web rather than a Walled Garden and Vodafone became the first mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its newly launched mobile Internet portal in the UK.^[20] On 1 August 2007 Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

On 17 April 2008 Vodafone extended its footprint to Serbia as Vip mobile was added to the community as a Partner Network and on 20 May 2008 the Company added VIP Operator as a Partner Network thereby extending the global footprint to Macedonia. In May 2008 Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone Faroe Islands.

Vodafone in Asia-Pacific

History

In July 1993 BellSouth New Zealand's network went live and October 1993 Vodafone Australia's network also went live. This was followed in July 1994 by Vodafone Fiji's network going live.

In November 1998 Vodafone purchased BellSouth New Zealand which later became Vodafone New Zealand. In 1999 J-Phone launched the J-sky mobile internet service in response to DoCoMo's i-Mode service. In December 2002 J-Phone's 3G network went live.

On 1 October 2003 J-Phone became 'Vodafone' and J-Phone's mobile internet service J-Sky became Vodafone Live!. On 3 November 2003 Singapore became a part of the community as M1 was signed as partner network.

In December 2004 Vodafone Australia agreed to deploy high-speed MPLS backbone network built by Lucent Worldwide Services using Juniper hardware.^[21]

Then in April 2005 SmarTone changed the name of its brand to 'SmarTone-Vodafone' after both companies signed a Partner Network Agreement. In August 2005 Vodafone launched 3G technology in New Zealand and in October 2005 it began launching 3G technology in Australia. On 28 October 2005 the Company announced the acquisition of a 10 per cent stake in India's Bharti Televentures, which operates the largest mobile phone network in India under the brand name AirTel. On 22 December 2005 the Company announced the completion of the acquisition of the 10% stake in Bharti Televentures of India.

In January 2006 Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka were added to the Vodafone footprint as Vodafone Group signed a partner network agreement with Telekom Malaysia. On 17 March 2006 Vodafone announced an agreement to sell all its interest in Vodafone Japan to SoftBank for £8.9 billion of which £6.8 billion will be received in cash on closing of deal. Vodafone Japan later changed its name to SoftBank Mobile. On 9 October 2006 Vodafone New Zealand bought New Zealand's 3rd largest I.S.P., iHug and on 1 November 2006 Vodafone Australia signed the Australian Football League (AFL)'s biggest individual club sponsorship deal with the Brisbane Lions for seasons 2007, 2008 and 2009.

On 6 February 2007 along with the partnership with Digicel Caribbean (see below), Samoa was added as a Partner Market. Then on 11 February 2007 the Company agreed to acquire a controlling interest of 67% in Hutchison Essar Limited for US$11.1 billion. At the same time, it agreed to sell back 5.6% of its AirTel stake back to the Mittals. Vodafone would retain a 4.4% stake in AirTel. On 21 September 2007 Hutch was rebranded to Vodafone in India.

On 10 February 2008 Vodafone announced the launching of M-Paisa mobile money transfer service on Afghanistan's Roshan: Afghanistan was added to the Vodafone footprint.

Vodafone in the Middle East and Africa

History

In October 1998 Vodafone Egypt network went live under the name ClickGSM.

On 18 September 2002 Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with MTC group of Kuwait. The agreement involved the rebranding of MTC to MTC-Vodafone. On 29 December 2003 Vodafone signed another Partner Network Agreement with Kuwait's MTC group. The second agreement involved co-operation in Bahrain and the branding of the network as MTC-Vodafone.

On 3 November 2004 the Company announces that its South African affiliate Vodacom had agreed to introduce Vodafone's international services, such as Vodafone live! and partner agreements, to its local market.

In November 2005 Vodafone announced that it was in exclusive talks to buy a 15% stake of VenFin in Vodacom Group, reaching agreement the following day. Vodafone and Telkom then had a 50% stake each in Vodacom.

On 8 November 2006 the Company announced a deal with Telecom Egypt resulting in further co-operation in the Egyptian market and increasing its stake in Vodafone Egypt. After the deal, Vodafone Egypt was 55% owned by the group, while the remaining 45% was owned by Telecom Egypt.

In December 2007 a Vodafone Group-led consortium was awarded the second mobile phone licence in Qatar and on 3 July 2008 Vodafone agreed to acquire a 70% stake in Ghana Telecom for $900 million. The acquisition was consummated on 17 August 2008.

Vodafone in the Americas

History

United States

For more information, see Verizon Wireless.

In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the country's second largest mobile carrier behind AT&T after their merger with Cingular Wireless. The percentage of the customer base and revenues of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone consolidates is slightly lower, since some Verizon Wireless subsidiaries have minority investors. (Hence the exact percentages that Vodafone and Verizon report vary from period to period: in June 2006 Vodafone reported that Verizon Wireless owned 98.6% of its customers at that date.) Before this joint venture was formed, Vodafone merged with AirTouch Communications of the U.S. in June 1999 and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch Plc. In September 1999, Vodafone Airtouch announced a $70-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic Corp. Verizon Wireless was composed of Bell Atlantic's and Vodafone AirTouch's U.S. wireless assets and began operations on April 4, 2000. However, Verizon Communications—the company formed when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged on June 30, 2000—owns a majority of Verizon Wireless and Vodafone's branding is not used, nor is the CDMA network compatible with GSM phones. This relationship has been quite profitable for Vodafone, but there have historically been three problems with it. The first is the above-mentioned incompatibility with the GSM 900/1800 MHz standard used by Vodafone's other networks, and the consequent difficulty of offering roaming between Vodafone's U.S. and other networks. The other two stem from the fact that Vodafone does not have management control over Verizon Wireless. Vodafone is thus unable to use the Vodafone brand for its U.S. operations, and (perhaps more importantly) has no control of dividend policy at Verizon Wireless and is therefore entirely at the mercy of Verizon management with respect to cash flow from Verizon Wireless.

Perhaps as a consequence of these reasons, Vodafone made a bid for the entirety of AT&T Wireless when that company was for sale in 2004. Had this bid been successful, Vodafone would presumably have sold its stake in Verizon Wireless, and then rebranded the resultant business as Vodafone. However, Cingular Wireless (a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth (both now AT&T)) ultimately outbid Vodafone and took control of AT&T Wireless, and Vodafone's relationship with Verizon has continued.

Early in 2006 Verizon re-iterated their desire to buy-out the remaining 45% of Stock of Verizon Wireless from Vodafone Group. Vodafone has also repeatedly indicated that it would be willing to buy out Verizon's stake.

Verizon has announced that its 4G data network will be LTE, which is considered part of the GSM path and not the cdma2000 path Verizon has been using; it has been suggested this is to appease Vodafone, which uses GSM on its own networks.

Latin America

On 15 November 2005, Vodafone Group announced a group-wide co-operation agreement with América Móvil of Mexico. The agreement involves co-operation on international services and roaming. The services include Voice and GPRS Roaming services, Preferred Roaming and Virtual Home Environment. Included in the agreement are the 13 networks owned and controlled by América Móvil (except Tracfone in the United States), and the various operating companies of Vodafone and its Partner Networks.

On May 11, 2008, Vodafone sealed a trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS enters the world of equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. It is not currently foreseen a sale of Entel PCS to Vodafone, but this is not ruled out for the future. This step will mean Vodafone will enter a market of over 17 million mobile numbers, currently divided among three companies, Telefonica Movistar, Claro and Vodafone-Entel PCS.

Caribbean

On 6 February 2007, Vodafone Group signed a three-year partnership agreement with Digicel Group. The agreement, which includes Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, will result to the offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups will also become preferred roaming partners of each other. Along with Digicel's markets, the Vodafone brand is now present in 81 countries, regions, and territories.

Chief Executives

To date Vodafone has had three Chief Executives, with the third, Arun Sarin, soon to retire from the company and be replaced by the current Deputy Chief Executive, Vittorio Colao. Each has made their own individual contribution to the Company.

Sir Gerald Whent, at that time an Executive with Racal Electronics Plc, was responsible for the bid for a UK Cellular Network licence. The Mobile Telecoms division was de-merged and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 1988 and Sir Gerald became Chief Executive of Racal Telecom Plc. Over the next few years the company grew to become the UK's Market Leader, changing its name to Vodafone Group Plc in the process.

Sir Christopher Gent took over as Chief Executive in January 1997 after Sir Gerald's retirement. Sir Christopher is responsible for transforming Vodafone from a small UK operator into the global behemoth that it is today, through the merger with the American AirTouch and the takeover of Germany's Mannesmann.

Arun Sarin was the driving force behind the Company's move into Emerging Markets such as Asia and Africa, through the purchases such as that of Turkish operator Telsim and a majority stake in Hutchison Essar in India. Faced with increased competition and penetration rates above 100% in the more mature European markets it was necessary to diversify from being a mobile-only business into a company which provided all telecommunications services. This has seen Vodafone launch DSL and other fixed-line services in markets such as Germany and the UK.

Financial results

Vodafone reportes its results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Vodafone has some large minority stakes, which are not included in its consolidated turnover. In order to provide additional information on the overall scale and growth trends of its business it publishes "proportionate turnover" figures and these are included in the tables below. For example, if a business in which it owns a 45% stake has turnover of £10 billion, that equals £4.5 billion of proportionate turnover for Vodafone. Proportionate turnover is not an official accounting measure and Vodafone's proportionate turnover should be compared with other companies' statutory turnover.

Vodafone also produces proportionate customer number figures on a similar basis, eg. if an operator in which it has a 30% stake has 10 million customers that equals 3 million proportionate Vodafone customers. This is a common practice in the mobile telecommunications industry.

*Losses for year to 31 March 2006 reflect write downs of assets, principally in relation to the Mannesmann acquisition. Proportionate turnover includes £7,100 million from discontinued operations.

Products

Products promoted by the Company include Vodafone live!, Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem, Vodafone at Home, Vodafone 710 and Amobee Media Systems.

Corporate Sponsorship/Ownership

A Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton.

Vodafone sponsors the following events:

• Brisbane Lions Football Club, Australian rules football team, major sponsor from 2007
• Bucharest Ring - Vodafone Bucharest Challenge 07, primary sponsor
• Clare Gaelic Athletic Association
• DTM (German Touring Car Masters) series
• England cricket team
• Vodafone Oaks and Vodafone Derby horse races
• McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team, title sponsor
• New Zealand Warriors - An NRL Rugby League team
• UEFA Champions League from the 2006/7 season
• Port Adelaide Football Club Australian rules football team, joint major sponsor since 1997
• North Melbourne Football Club Australian rules football team, joint major sponsor since 2008
• Romania National Football Team, major sponsor from 2006
• St Kilda Football Club Australian rules football team, joint major sponsor from 2007
• Vodafone Arena (Rosenholm) multisport arena in Karlskrona, Sweden (since 2005)
• Vodafone Arena Multi purpose venue. Arena in Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia
• Wellington Lions - New Zealand rugby union team
• West Coast Eagles, Australian rules football team, elite sponsor since March 2006
• Triple 8 Race Engineering, V8 Supercars team, primary sponsor (since 2007)
• Olympiakos, Greek football team
• Newbury R.F.C., Newbury Rugby Club
• Newbury Comedy Festival
• Newbury Buses
• Home-Start International worldwide family support charity

Previous sponsorships by Vodafone include those of SL Benfica, Manchester United, Ferrari and the Benetton (now known as Renault F1) Formula One constructors and the Australia national rugby union team.

See also

• Vodafone market share

References

External links

• A History of Vodafone's Culture from the 1990s
• Vodafone's global website
• Vodafone Journey
• Vodafone mobile-compatible website
• Vodafone Online Mobile Phone Shop
• Vodafone Test & Innovation Center
• Vodafone Betavine
• Vodafone Betavine's Forge
• Vodafone stock quote
• VODAFONE COMPANY REPORT - FCReports.com
• Vodafone's TV Commercials