Vodafone Interested in Brazil - for the Right Opportunity

Vodafone is interested in investing in the Brazilian market, but only if the right opportunity arises. Speaking to the Portuguese newspaper, Diario Economico, Vodafone's CEO Arun Sarin and Portugal CEO, António Carrapatoso discussed the local market and the advantages that having an existing Portuguese operation could bring to the company if it did expand in Latin America.

"The key is to find the right opportunity. It is very easy to sit us and say we want to buy something. But someone has to be willing to sell and that has an interesting asset for us." said Arun Sarin.

"As a business, we are constantly looking for opportunities around the world. And we are becoming larger and stronger in emerging markets. Approximately 20% of our revenue... comes these emerging markets. That is a huge increase - from zero a few years ago."

Commenting on possible plans, António Carrapatoso noted that "from time to time, Vodafone looks to the Brazilian market and I have participated in many of these studies." However, he noted that none of the studies suggested an investment - at that time.

Source:http://www.cellular-news.com/

Vodafone buys Perlico

ion enables Vodafone to offer consumers a complete range of mobile, fixed-line and broadband communications services in Ireland. Financial details were not given.

The combined businesses will comprise 2.2 million subscribers from Vodafone and 62,500 from Perlico, of which 25,000 are broadband subscribers. Perlico will be a subsidiary of Vodafone, and is expected to launch as an MVNO brand in the next few months.

Perlico chief executive Iain MacDonald said: “Perlico and Vodafone represent a compelling combination. We will continue to provide the Irish consumer with the attributes which have made Perlico a success – value, choice and award-winning service.”

Vodafone Ireland chief executive Charles Butterworth added: “Perlico represents a compelling strategic fit for Vodafone Ireland. The acquisition brings Vodafone a significant step closer to our objective to provide a complete communications service to our customers – including mobile, fixed line voice, broadband and internet services.

“It will allow customers, of both Vodafone and Perlico, the opportunity to choose the communications mix that best suits them.”

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.

It dismissed a temporary injunction, issued at the request of Vodafone, that stopped the German operator from preventing the phone being used on other networks.

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.

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.

Analysts have suggested that the case may have been an attempt by Vodafone, which failed to win any iPhone contracts, to disrupt T-Mobile’s sales strategy in the preChristmas sales period.

source:http://business.timesonline.co.uk

Texts sent in the UK rises to 1.2bn a week

UK mobile users are now sending 1.2 billion texts per week, the same number sent during the whole of 1999, said the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
It said 4.8 billion texts were sent in September. The figure represents growth in SMS traffic of 25 per cent compared with 2006.

The MDA has since hiked its forecast for the year from 48 billion to 52 billion text messages.

MDA chairman Mike Short said: “The UK sits in the top six of the global league of countries sending texts. As the trend towards flat-rate data tariffs increases, this will act as a catalyst for consumer’s passion for all things mobile.”

The UK figures for September break down to an average of 70 text messages per person, per month.

Ovum principal analyst John Delaney said: “Even if SMS traffic keeps growing at current rates, the networks can’t rely on SMS revenues growing at the same pace. They need to plan an encore: a new type of service that can have the same kind of mass-market appeal as SMS, and that can inject new growth into mobile messaging revenues.”
Source:http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk