Voda boss could reap £45m for just hanging on

Vodafone boss Arun Sarin could be cashing in £45m, in shares and options, if he can keep Vodafone on an even keel until summer 2009. Even if he jumps ship now he could sell off what he already owns for a tidy £10m.

The figures come from The Sunday Times, which has worked out that the 33 per cent rise in Vodafone shares over the last 12 months values Mr. Sarin's current stock in the company at £10m. Throw in future share and option grants and the figure jumps to that almost round £45m. They also note he should still have some change lying around from the £17m he made selling Air-Touch to Vodafone back in 1999.
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Arun has certainly turned Vodafone around, selling off unprofitable ownerships in Switzerland and Belgium while getting involved in developing markets such as India. Investors have responded well to his leadership and driven up the price of the shares, despite the fact that the UK Vodafone billing system is a complete mess and Sarin apparently knows nothing about the mobile phone business.

But despite his novel approach the company has been rolling out new services and getting customers onto data services as well as ensuring it's got fixed-line assets where it's selling mobile, so it can paint itself as a communications company rather than a mobile phone operator.

To get his £45m Sarin is going to have to keep Vodafone profitable for the next 18 months. He had intended to step down this summer, but the promise of such a wedge could well be enough to keep him hanging around for an additional year.
Source:http://www.theregister.co.uk

Samsung F700 flies

Samsung Mobile's F700 handset will trump the success of its G800 if sales continue as they are, said Samsung Uk & Ireland director Mark Mitchinson.

Samsung’s market share has slipped over the past month, but Mitchinson reckons the F700 (pictured) will see it reassert its buoyancy ahead of Christmas.

“On Vodafone, the Samsung F700 is selling extremely well,” he said. “It is on a par with the G800. Hopefully we will pick up some market share.”

Meanwhile Samsung’s Susan Land has taken on marketing for the networks as well as retail and distribution, in a new head of marketing role.

source:http://www.mobilephoneshopuk.net

HTC cancels production of V920 Smartphone for Vodafone

The Taiwan-based High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) has reportedly canceled its contract production of V920 series smartphone for the United Kingdom's telecom company Vodafone, which was originally slated for sale during the Christmas season in Europe.

Besides, Google's newly launched Android platform has shown defective quality, which may constitute negative impact on HTC's sales of G Phone, the world's first model designed for the platform.

Back in this September, Vodafone, one of the world's biggest telecom companies, launched several own-brand mobile phones, including V920 smartphone that is built with a two-megapixel camera and a 2.4-inch screen and uses 3.5-generation Internet access, for sale in the Christmas season. However, Vodafone reportedly decided to drop the V920, and has yet to give any reasons for the cancellation.

On another front, HTC has also been plagued by the underdevelopment of Google's Android platform that will severely affect success of the world's first G Phone, which is scheduled to be launched by HTC in the first half of 2008.

Google unveiled its Android platform, a mobile phone platform, in November, attracting quite a few software companies to develop application software based on the platform. But, the Android platform has many unsolved bugs in programs, whereas Google hasn't provided integral reporting systems for debugging.

Also, Android's design procedures and documents provided by Google are not clear enough, and the human machine interface of the platform is not splendid, making application software based on the platform unattractive in look and feel for users, who are inclined to accept more vision-oriented interface nowadays.

Vodafone's UK JV stagnating

WHILE 3 UK and T-Mobile happily go ahead with joint venture - Mobile Broadband Network – the INQ learnt that the wheels are still turning very slowly for Orange and Vodafone.

The pair still haven't come up with a name for the management company which will run their combined network, even though the 'historic agreement' was announced back in February 2007.
So it's still called the 'JV' for convenience sakes. Maybe they'll come up with something a bit more original than T-Mobile and 3 UK.

One of the excuses appears to be that the JV's submission to the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) is still pending, although our mole says something should happen any day now.

After that it'll be roughly three months before there's an official green light. Although given the existence of Mobile Broadband Network, it's hard to see how the OFT could say 'No'.

The three months should be taken up with the JV making a decision on who to outsource the project to. Apparently the front runners are: - Nokia Siemens Networks; Ericsson Services; Alcatel Lucent; BT and Huawei. Those five will be narrowed down to two before the final selection is made.

The favourite appears to be Ericsson – but then Ericsson is already favourite for Mobile Broadband network, too.
So it's looking like Q2 2008 before anything really starts to happen. It's a bit of a contrast to India where Vodafone, Bharti and Idea have already set up an infrastructure sharing company, Indus Towers. µ
Source:http://www.theinquirer.net

Vodafone launches My Communities upload service

My Communities enables Vodafone customers to upload pictures and videos from mobiles to Facebook, Youtube, Myspace and Bebo.

Vodafone has announced its "My Communities" including Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Bebo will enable customers for the first time to upload pictures and videos to
their favorite community directly from their mobile.

Customers can now upload pictures and video to their Facebook account direct from their
Nokia N95 8GB or Sony Ericsson W910i handsets, a functionality which is at the moment unique to Vodafone customers only.

Anyone who wants to try the new service needs to click on the My Communities icon and you will be prompted to download the application.

They can then choose one of the four communities and using their current login details (which the phone then remembers for future) and can upload content straight from their handset.

Customers must be signed up for internet usage, data charges will be around 22p per pic, depending on size, and will take around 30 seconds to upload on 3G network access.

Vodafone UK Moves to the Top Spot in Off-portal Sales

Looking back over 2007, UK based mobile billing provider, Bango reports strong commercial gains for UK operators that moved to open up the mobile web, with Vodafone UK rising to first place in the value of off-portal content sales. Measured across its total base of content providers, Bango saw traffic grow fastest on networks where steps were taken to encourage more browsing off-portal and payout rates increased to content providers.

Vodafone has benefited from being among the first to offer a clean, consumer friendly WAP billing interface. It also supports the move from a portal model to a more open search based model by placing a search box prominently on the Vodafone live! home page. The payout rates are among the highest of all the UK operators.

"2007 was a good year for all UK networks but by moving decisively to support off-portal content sales, Vodafone leapt to the top of the league in value of transactions. We foresee the UK operators battling to offer even better payout rates, approaching that of credit cards." - Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango

source:http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28168.php

Vodafone has made good calls in emerging markets

If there were any doubt about the credit crunch hitting the high street, the grisly headlines of the past few weeks have firmly dispelled it. In such a turbulent financial environment, established stocks such as BT are traditionally regarded as a safe haven.

But investors with an eye for telecoms might do better to turn towards the mobile sector and its flagship player, Vodafone.

Likes its landline peer the group, which boasts 241 million global subscribers, offers the reassurance of ‘sticky’ customers: While its average revenue spend - currently around £24 a month in the UK - may slow if a finanical downturn does take hold, it would require nothing short of financial Armageddon for most of us to give up our mobile subscriptions.

But while BT struggles to convince many investors that its ambitions for serving global corporates as a multinational IT player can be pulled off – it has yet been unable to report progress towards a 15 per cent profit margin target for its Global Services division – Vodafone has two convincing growth paths opening up to it.

It does however mark a turning point in Vodafone’s future prospects, giving an indication that consumers are finally banishing their reluctance to spend on more lucrative services instead of just calling and texting.

In the current environment the group’s diversified geographic portfolio and critically its exposure to markets outside of the UK and US is also a strong plus point While a foothold in such markets does not come cheap – it splashed out $11.1 billion for a 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth-biggest mobile operator, earlier this year – Vodafone has presented convincing evidence of a significant payback.

In contrast to the 2 per cent revenue growth in Europe at the half year, revenues in Vodafone’s emerging markes regions jumped an impressive 39.9 per cent.

Vodacom, in which Vodafone is desperately seeking to boost its 50 per cent stake, recently reported an envious 15.1 per cent growth in profit – the kind of double-digit growth associated in the UK with the mobile heyday of the late 1990s.

At 183.20p, up 29 per cent in the year, the group trades at 16 times next year’s earnings.

Frequent use of mobile may trigger mouth cancer

London: The use of mobile phones for long periods may trigger mouth cancer, shows a study by researchers in Israel.

Previous studies had generated conflicting results. While some researchers had said they found a link between cancer and excess mobile phone use, a few scientists had rejected the claim.

In the new study, scientists looked at the lifestyles of 402 people with benign mouth tumours and 56 with malignant ones. They were compared to a control group of 1,266 people.

The study found that five years of frequent use increased the chances of developing a tumour in the mouth by around 50 per cent compared with people who had never used one, reported the online edition of the Daily Mail.

Those who used mobiles the most were more likely than normal to develop parotid gland tumours, the scientists said.

The parotid is the largest of the salivary glands located in front of the ear. Long-term mobile phone users tended to develop tumours on the same side of the head as the phone was normally held, they said.

People who used mobile phones in rural areas, where the phone has to work harder to make contact with the nearest base station, were found to be at greater risk although the cause of the heightened risk was not established.

Source:http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14576183

Vodafone to upgrade mobile broadband

Vodafone Australia has announced plans to upgrade its mobile broadband network, claiming the network will provide coverage to 95% of Australians before the end of 2008.

The upgrade will be based on high-speed packet access (HSPA) technology, enabling faster download and upload speed as well as expanded coverage. It will also improve coverage and capacity for 2G and 3G voice calls.

"We're accelerating plans to upgrade our mobile network, which will provide our customers with faster download and upload speeds, better performance and improved services," said Russell Hewitt, Vodafone Australia's CEO.

The company's CTO, Andy Reeves, said, "We'll be going flat out with teams upgrading sites in every state and territory, simultaneously. It's a massive project but we're very confident we can complete Vodafone's national mobile broadband network upgrade within one year."

Vodafone will continue its 3G joint venture with Optus in metropolitan areas. All Vodafone mobile devices already in use will continue to operate on the new network.

The company intends to complete its hardware and software vendor selection process early in 2008 and has already commenced work in preparation for the upgrade.

Source:http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/

Vodafone Xmas ad blitz

The Samsung F700 slider phone is the centrepiece of Vodafone's Christmas advertising campaign, understood to have cost around 10 million pounds.

The campaign will highlight a range of handsets exclusive to Vodafone and will run across television, print, radio, outdoor and online media.

Vodafone UK head of brand marketing and communications Dominic Chambers said: “We focus on music and internet services. Christmas is going to be very competitive. The campaign will drive footfall.”

Source:http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Vodafone Sells Porsche's Luxury Mobile Phone; Price Tops IPhone

Vodafone Group Plc, stymied in an effort to let customers use Apple Inc.'s iPhone on its German network, started a partnership with Porsche SE to offer the luxury carmaker's first handset.

The aluminum P9521 phone is on sale exclusively at 120 Vodafone shops in Germany for 999 euros ($1,466) with a service contract, and 1,199 euros without, Vodafone said in an e-mailed statement today.

The Porsche handset features a double-hinge design that allows users to rotate the touch-sensitive screen 180 degrees, Vodafone said. The device also has a 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus, flash and digital zoom. A fingerprint scanning device helps protect personal data on the phone.

This month, Newbury, England-based Vodafone lost a bid in court to forbid Deutsche Telekom AG from selling the iPhone exclusively with a two-year service contract with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit. T-Mobile, chosen by Apple to sell the iPhone in Germany, offers the combination handset and iPod digital music player for 399 euros plus a minimum monthly charge of 49 euros.

Apple, T-Mobile ‘monopolizers’ says Vodaphone

Mobile network provider Vodafone has accused T-Mobile and Apple of creating new monopolies.

“Apple and T-Mobile have decided to change the market in an anticompetitive way”, Heise Online has Vodafone Deutschland CEO Friedrich Joussen saying.

A German court recently overturned an injunction forcing T-Mobile to sell unlocked phones.

Now, “Exclusively marketing the iPhone with T-Mobile sets a precedence which creates new monopolies at the expense of the customer”, says Joussen in an interview with Berliner Zeitung, states the story.

German law and mobile telephony licenses say a mobile phone must work in any network, Joussen told a Hamburg regional court, asking it to decide if iPhone access should be limited to only one operator.

“The iPhone was the first not to comply with this rule by being exclusive to T-Mobile,” he says, also declaring he has, “no intention to allow Apple to dictate how the market was to operate”.

O2 similarly rules the iPhone roost in Britain but in France, where customers aren’t compelled to go to just one supplier, to DRM King Steve Jobs’ disgust, 20% have bought unlocked iPhones.
source:http://www.p2pnet.net

Vodafone gives Hamilton F700 for Xmas

Vodafone has given a Samsung F700 to Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and each of his pit crew as a Christmas present at an event in London.

The gift is part of Vodafone’s ongoing sponsorship of the McLaren Formula One team, where Hamilton is the main driver. Vodafone presented Hamilton and his crew with the handsets at the Vodafone store in Oxford Street in order to promote the new F700 and the Vodafone Music Store. The F700 features a touch screen, five megapixel camera, HTML browsing and QWERY keyboard. The handset also offers access to the Vodafone Music Store, which boasts an archive of over 1.4 million songs.

Hamilton said: “It’s a great pleasure to work with Vodafone because I get a load of free phones!

"The F700 is very useful as I can now listen to music and contact people all on one device. It's great having access to the Vodafone Music Store as it gives me access to so many tracks, which is important to me as music plays a big part in my life.

“It’s funny that Vodafone has given me a F700 for Christmas as I've just ordered some for a few of my friends and family.”

To watch the presentation or to hear Hamilton’s views on the Samsung F700 and Vodafone Music Store take a look at the video in our related media section

Source:http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Vodafone fails to stop German iPhone deal

Vodafone failed yesterday in its attempt to block a German rival from selling Apple’s iPhone exclusively, when a Hamburg court ruled that T-Mobile could market the phone only to its customers.

Vodafone, which had claimed that the tie-up breached German competition laws, could now face a substantial claim for damages from T-Mobile.

The case had threatened to undermine Apple’s iPhone business model. The Californian group had sought to maximise revenues from the gadget – a combined music player, mobile phone and internet browser – by striking exclusive operator deals in each European market. In return for these exclusive deals, each partner mobile network agreed to hand over to Apple a significant chunk of customer revenues.

Competition laws in France have forced Apple to open up the phone to other networks there, in addition to its “exclusive” French partner Orange.

A spokesman for Vodafone said: “The intention of the legal action was to ensure clarity on the commercial postion in the German marketplace. We have not received the written ruling, but we will be examining it closely to decide on any future actions.
source:http://business.timesonline.co.uk

Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 15% in 3Q2007

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users in the third quarter of 2007 reached 289 million units, a 15 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner Inc. The top five vendors increased their market shares and accounted for 81.6 percent of the global market share.

"Even though relatively few models were introduced this quarter, overall sales exceeded expectations. Mobile phone sales were mainly driven by strong performances in Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa," said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices research at Gartner. "The third quarter also saw Samsung gain the No. 2 position taking advantage of Motorola's continued weak performance."

Nokia's mobile phone sales to end-users totaled 110.2 million units reaching a market share of 38.1 percent in the third quarter of 2007. This quarter, Nokia not only exhibited the highest year-on-year market share increase, but also raised operating margins thanks to effective cost management and global distribution strategy. Nokia was also the main provider of those devices as Motorola shifted focus away from them.

Samsung's sales to end users reached 41.8 million units and saw the vendor gain the No. 2 position as it better managed its channel inventory. Sales of its Ultra Edition II series continued to gain momentum in key markets such as Western Europe, where Samsung reached 21 percent market share, its strongest performance in the region.

Motorola's sales into the channel remained weak and, with limited surplus stock, sales to end-users were not enough to maintain its No. 2 position. Motorola's market share dropped 7.6 percentage points from the third quarter of 2006, relegating the vendor to the No. 3 position.

Sony Ericsson's positive performance continued in the third quarter of 2007 as sales reached 25.4 million units. As Sony Ericsson built up sales volume and presence in some regions, such as Latin America, it also saw a slight increase in inventory among distributors.

LG sold 20.5 million units in the third quarter of 2007 and reached a market share of 7.1 percent. LG faced stronger competition in markets such as India, where the code division multiple access (CDMA) market has become challenging as operators closed deals with new entrants such as ZTE.
Source:http://www.wirelessdesignasia.com

Vodafone confirms JV plan for India network

The effort should reduce the high costs to Vodafone of building the backbone of a cellular phone network, including towers to transmit signals...
.
To speed up its expansion across India, the world’s largest wireless service company, Vodafone Group Plc., is planning on teaming up with other operators to create a joint venture (JV) to operate its networks.
The effort should reduce the high costs to Vodafone of building the backbone of a cellular phone network, including towers to transmit signals, and help reach more people, particularly in rural areas.
The move expands plans Vodafone laid out in February to share its network with India’s largest cellular company, Bharti Airtel Ltd. Now, Vodafone plans to operate those networks via a JV and could include other carriers.
“As we’ve gotten into it, we’re finding that we’ve been able to expand the scope and scale of the venture that we were thinking about,” said the company’s chief executive Arun Sarin in an interview. He declined to say which other companies could join and said it could be a couple of months before deals are finalized.
The move is the latest by the UK-based wireless operator to expand its operations after it made the largest foreign investment in India with its $10.9 billion (Rs44,472 crore in May) acquisition of a majority stake in cellphone firm Hutchison Essar Ltd earlier this year. Analysts and investors are looking for news on how the Indian business is faring on 10 December, when management is scheduled to present an update.
Vodafone, the largest company in the industry by sales, is pushing into high growth markets such as India as its core European markets are increasingly saturated.

source: http://www.livemint.com

Vodafone, Telefonica move into mobile ads: Financial Times

Vodafone Group PLC and Telefonica SA (TEF) have taken stakes in a mobile phones advertising company, as they look for ways to fight back against the incursion of Internet search groups into their territory, reports The Financial Times Wednesday.
The two rival mobile operators have made an undisclosed investment in Amobee, which has begun rolling out its advertising serving platform for mobile search, mobile games and text messages, the report says.
Both companies have begun trials of Amobee's technology - Telefonica through its O2 subsidiary in the U.K. and Vodafone in Spain, Greece and the Czech Republic - but said they had decided to take minority stakes to improve their understanding of a potential future growth source, the report says.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com

Santa Brings 8GB Nokia N95 at Vodafone for Christmas

Vodafone UK is looking forward to bring some shiny new toys to the subscribers that have been good all year long. In the company's handset range for this year's Christmas, Nokia N95 8Gb version is one that will surely attract the interest of many customers out there.

The most promising thing about Vodafone's offer for this
winter is that it brings some really powerful "iPhone killers", with the 8GB version of Nokia N95 and Samsung F700 too. From what it looks like up to this point, the company will not carry Apple's phone in Europe, as they have made no official announcement on it. Still, the fact that no other operator has set the start in making these statements leaves some crumbs of possibility that the initial rumors stating Vodafone as the iPhone's European carrier are not completely washed away.

The first version of Nokia N95 was pretty capable of competing with the iPhone too. Now that the smartphone has boosted some new performances, the chances are that it will also manage to surpass Apple's handset and make up for its lack in Vodafone's offer.

The large 8GB memory space that the iPhone used to bring has been topped by the new black Nokia N95. Still, Apple might not just stand and watch how its phone gets surpassed at its evolved features. Rumors state that the European version of the iPhone will be packed with some impressive 16 GB of internal memory.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com

Vodafone and Nokia Team for Integrated Vodafone Services

Vodafone and Nokia have agreed to launch an integrated suite of Vodafone services combined with Nokia Ovi Services on a range of Nokia handsets.

The services will offer customers a greater choice of communications, Internet services, content and browsing through a range of premium handsets on high speed 3G and 3G broadband networks. Vodafone and Nokia also have agreed that a number of these handsets will be exclusive to Vodafone.

Customers will get faster and easier access to all of Vodafone's Internet and entertainment services as well as all of Ovi from Nokia services on a wide range of handsets. Vodafone customers will be able to access the widest and most attractive choice of Internet services.

Vodafone and Nokia will make it easier to access the Internet quickly at the click of a button. Customers will get the full suite of communications, content, Internet services and browsing, through seamlessly integrated Vodafone services on Nokia handsets.

source:http://www.tradingmarkets.com

Vodafone faces court case in 'bugging' row

Parents believe their son was murdered before he could blow the whistle
Senior British managers of Vodafone are facing a private lawsuit from the family of a former employee who claim that he was murdered to stop him revealing a major phone-tapping scandal.

According to the family's lawyer, the case, which has raised troubling questions about the ability of third parties to eavesdrop on private phone conversations, threatens to highlight the actions of several senior Vodafone employees in the days leading up to the death of 38-year-old Costas Tsalikidis.

The dead man's family fear that Tsalikidis, a technician with Vodafone in Greece, stumbled across a plot to listen in to private conversations of the Greek Prime Minister and a number of other top-ranking officials during the run-up to the Athens Olympics in 2004 and that those who were conducting the bugging operation took steps to silence him.

Tsalikidis's family have never accepted the findings of an inquiry that found he hanged himself, apparently because of pressure of work. They suspect he was poisoned and are now petitioning to have his body exhumed for tests.

The family say Tsalikidis was not the type to take his life and that he was, until the weeks before his death, a happy man looking forward to marrying his fiancee. They say he tried to resign 20 days before his death, but this was rejected by Vodafone. The day before he died, Tsalikidis sent two detailed emails to senior Vodafone employees, the contents of which have never been divulged.

The day after Tsalikidis's death, the head of Vodafone in Greece informed the Prime Minister's office that it had discovered rogue software had been installed on its network, which allowed a third party to listen into conversations. Vodafone says it was alerted to the problem after being tipped off by engineers working for one of its technical suppliers. But despite an official inquiry the identity of those who perpetrated the phone-taps has never emerged. The inquiry found that the private conversations of some of Greece's most important politicians and officials, conducted on more than 100 mobile phones, had been sent to 'shadow' mobile phones and recorded on computers. Experts have been able to pinpoint the locations of many of the shadow phones which, it is claimed, correlate to a number of properties rented by the US government.

Spendometer for Mobile Phone Users in UK to Manage their Budget

Spending a lot of money has always been a problem for most of us to control. We are so engrossed in our day-to-day work that we tend to forget to manage our budget.

Now here’s a solution. Spendometer is a new device that keeps a check on our expenditure. UK-based website, moneybasics.co.uk, provides the Spendometer to free the users from debt via mobile phone.

Spendometer allows mobile phone users to budget their outgoing. With this innovative device, handset owners can keep track of their maximum weekly spending that are divided into categories that includes lunch, clothes and alcohol.

All you need to do is enter the amount of money spent with the mentioned category, later the gadget sends a text message alert on your phone whenever you exceed your spending limits.

“By making money management easy with mobile phones, we hope to help millions to keep better control of their money,” Scotsman quoted Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of the charity Credit Action.

However, it is not clear whether the Spendometer targets the cash payment or even the credit card payment or both. According to me this device will surely be useful for young people who spend a lot. It is accessible only to UK mobile phone users.

Source:http://www.techgadgets.in

Vodafone InsideOut arrives in Second Life

It’s all about social networking nowadays. Both carriers and handset makers are eagerly adding support for various social services to their offerings/phones.

And now, we have Vodafone introducing a new service called “InsideOut,” allowing users to interact with characters from Second Life right from their mobile phones. Just like with most of the modern services, right on the launch it’s in beta and is therefor free. However, the free period ends on November 30th, when the carrier may start charging up to 300 L$ per minute/message.

In the meantime, while enjoying a free calls to Second Life users, Vodafone won’t be providing you with any support… More information is available on Vodafone’s InsideOut website.

Source:http://www.intomobile.com/

3G iPhone headed to Vodafone in Q1 2008?

Here we go again. The latest 3G iPhone rumor points to Vodafone as the exclusive carrier for the next-gen iPhone with high-speed wireless data. Italian website Morse.IT claims to have spoken with high-level Vodafone sources that seems to indicate that Apple and Vodafone have signed an exclusive iPhone deal. Seeing as how Vodafone is currently backing a German court’s decision to force T-Mobile to give up iPhone exclusivity in Germany, we’re betting that the Vodafone iPhone deal doesn’t concern the EDGE-only iPhone. Could Vodafone’s move to force T-Mobile to give up iPhone exclusivity have been a negotiation tactic to secure the UMTS-addled iPhone for Vodafone’s networks all over Europe?

The 3G iPhone is rumored to be hitting Vodafone’s network in Q1 2008, which is pretty much in line with rumors that a 3G iPhone could hit Europe by May of 2008. We’re hearing that the 3G iPhone will launch simultaneously in all countries where Vodafone has a carrier-presence, but the announcement won’t be made until after the holidays - in order to prevent cannibalizing current iPhone holiday-sales. Could we see Apple and Vodafone bow the 3G iPhone at MacWorld Expo 2008? We’re crossing our fingers.

Verizon and Vodafone create a new service for multi-national organizations

Vodafone and Verizon have created a new service to appeal to the multi-national organizations and their “worldy” needs. The new “best-in-class” offering is designed to provide customers with a “consistent approach to products and pricing” under a single contract for the whole world.

The way I see it, the two carriers will ship as many BlackBerry World Edition devices as humanly possible to the multi-national corporations, along with the appropriate data plans. Or, they’ll provide them with two handsets — one with the CDMA (for the U.S.) and the other with the GSM radio (for the rest of the world).

Commenting on the announcement deputy CEO of Vodafone Group - Vittorio Colao said, “This unique Vodafone Verizon Wireless offer delivers more predictability and consistency to the communications needs of international businesses. It provides our customers with a single point of contact that makes it easier to do business with both companies. We are confident that this cooperation will provide immediate benefits to our customers and set a new standard in enterprise account management.”

Source: http://www.intomobile.com

Vodafone UK Retention Strategy: Cut Off Callers

Are you getting lots of customers calling to cancel their service so they can switch to other providers? Try Vodafone UK's response: cut them off before they get anywhere.

Whenever one tries to nagivate Voda's phone system to the relevant department, an automated message will tell you to call later and end the call, according to reports. It's been "experiencing a fault" since a certain competitor hit the market late last week — but only if you want to cancel your account.

The only way to get there is to choose another option, and then ask customer services to put you through. Magic! They'll argue with you, but the Inquirer reports that the retention drones don't have an answer on their scripts if you tell them you want an iPhone because "I'm just an Apple fanboy."

Source:http://blog.wired.com

Sony Ericsson K850i now available on Vodafone UK

Vodafone’s coming soon page reveals their potential and existing users can already get Sony Ericsson’s latest Cyber-shot phone - Sony Ericsson K850i. In addition, we see two Nokia devices there — Nokia 6500 classic, the stylish candybar feature phone; but also the N81, NGage’s flagship device. Finally, let’s not forget the Sony Ericsson W910i which is also coming as part of the carrier’s Christmas collection.

Vodafone will certainly have something for everyone. Still we can’t wait for O2’s first iPhone numbers and see how that compares with Vodafone’s sales…

Source:http://www.intomobile.com

Vodafone sees acquisitions in next 12 months

BARCELONA, Nov 15 - Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone Group Plc, told investors on Thursday that the British-based mobile phone giant was likely to secure fresh acquisitions in the next 12 months.

Speaking at the annual Morgan Stanley investor conference in the Spanish city of Barcelona, Sarin reiterated that he saw "a couple" of acquisition opportunities in Asia and in Africa.

"You shouldn't be surprised to see things happening for us there in the coming year," he added.

But Sarin declined to be drawn on speculation that Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone company by revenue, was eying a 25 percent stake in the mobile operations of Telekom Malaysia .

He said only: "We are all grown up enough to know you should not believe everything you read in the press."

Sarin emphasized that Vodafone continued to pursue investments that would allow it, over time, to gain control -- although he noted that a "very strong" dividend stream might also focus Vodafone's attention in "some circumstances".

Vodafone rolls out EDGE in the UK...

Vodafone UK has confirmed to Pocket-lint that it slowly rolling out EDGE across its network in the Vodafone UK. However before you go looking for the official announcement from the mobile operator, there isn’t one and there won’t be, Pocket-lint has found out.

According to our source within the company, the EDGE network, which promises faster data speeds for phones that are EDGE compatible, will only be available when current 2G base stations need replacing.

Our source insisted however that the company isn’t planning on a national rollout to complete against O2.So far Pocket-lint has found EDGE connectivity on the Vodafone network in Southampton and Nottingham.

EDGE-enabled phones, including the iPhone can use the service to get slightly faster connectivity that GPRS.

"A leading edge connected camera, navigation device and multimedia computer in one"

Nokia has officially unveiled the Nokia N82, describing it as "the latest multimedia computer optimized for photography, navigation and internet connectivity".

Featuring A-GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, Xenon flash, Carl Zeiss optics and internet connectivity, Nokia says the new offering also incorporates all the "multimedia computer features" common to Nokia Nseries.

A-GPS and preinstalled Nokia Maps will be backed up with a free voice guided navigation trial, depending on region, and users can buy additional features, such as city guides and longer subscription to the navigation.

With a 5-mega pixel camera, Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, Nokia claims the N82 delivers remarkably vivid photographs, even in low-light conditions, often a complaint with camera phones.

Source:http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/11283/12307/Nokia-N82-sees-official-launch.phtml

Internet and e-mail access is a net gain for Vodafone

MILLIONS of people using their mobile phones to access the internet and e-mail have helped Vodafone post an increased interim profit and dividend.

Shares in the group rose more than 7 per cent as it increased its profit and revenue forecast for the full year.

The British-based mobile phone provider said sales of messages and data had increased by £300 million to £2.4 billion at its slow-growing but highly profitable European division, more than offsetting a fall in revenues from calls and roaming charges.

Vodafone uk said it now had 21 million third-generation devices in operation, a 92 per cent increase year-on-year, helped in particular by e-mail capable devices such as Blackberries.

Total data sales increased 45.1 per cent year-on-year. While data sales still only represented a small part of total revenue, Vodafone said it saw major growth potential.

Source:http://business.scotsman.com/technology.cfm?id=1800242007