• MOST READ

• LATEST NEWS

Vodafone's recent results highlighted the huge pressure it is under in its traditional, and increasingly saturated, European markets. So the firm is poised to expand its reach - through new channels in those overcrowded territories, and by stepping up the push into new countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa is an obvious target, but a region where Vodafone has been rather slower off the mark than France Telecom or more locally based regional giants such as MTN, Zain and Orascom. It has shown keener interest lately though, gaining control of its Vodacom joint venture with South Africa's incumbent Telkom, and acquiring a carrier in Ghana. Now it is likely to use Vodacom as a springboard for more aggressive moves in Africa, as indicated by the subsidiary's CEO Pieter Uys last week.

Vodacom has operations in five countries - South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. Vodafone agreed to buy an additional 15% stake from Telkom last November, making its stake 65%, and Telkom recently sold its remaining 35% to investors. Uys is looking for more decisive expansion now that Vodafone has control, saying that the joint venture structure slowed decision making and allowed fellow South African operator, MTN, to leap ahead (Vodacom has a total of almost 40m customers, 27.6m in South Africa, while MTN has 100m subscribers in 21 countries, mainly in Africa. It has also reopened negotiations regarding a merger with India's mobile leader Bharti Airtel.)

Uys believes the time is right to expand in Africa as many countries have too many operators, and these will be looking to sell up as recession hits their business - but will not be able to command inflated prices. "If you look at the world there aren't many growth opportunities around: Africa is one of them," he said.

Closer to home, Vodafone is said to be turning its back on a strategy of dealing exclusively with one UK high street retailer, Phones4U, and is looking to work with leader Carphone Warehouse again, according to The Guardian newspaper. Vodafone UK has suffered in the prepaid market, because its deals have only been available via one retailer since the cellco tore up its agreement with Carphone in 2006, and it is perceived - not always correctly - to be more expensive than rivals. The Phones4U exclusive ends in October and Vodafone may even end it before that date if it can get back into Carphone's 820 stores. The cellco admits its hope of changing the distribution pattern in the UK through that deal - the country has more independent mobile retailers than any other in Europe - had not been fulfilled.

Related Stories

COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to add a comment!

Digital Money: The Convergence of Contactless Card and Mobile Payments

This report examines the emergence of digital money from the perspective of the convergence of card-based proximity payments to the...

Cloudbooks: Market Analysis and Forecasts
This report is based on interviews with device OEMs, retailers and resellers and provides a comprehensive analysis of the new cloudbook...