Vodafone rebrands, but UK mobile broadband claims disappoint

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Vodafone rebrands, but UK mobile broadband claims disappoint

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 23 September, 2009

READ MORE: People/Management | UK | Vodafone | Broadband

As Vodafone faces the prospect of becoming number three operator in its UK homeland, it is planning a major rebranding to emphasize its smartphone and mobile broadband credentials. Even after the proposed merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, Vodafone would remain ahead of the joint venture in mobile data terms - but to succeed in its repositioning, the cellco might do better to improve its broadband marketing. A new survey indicates that UK mobile broadband providers are delivering, on average, just 24% of the speeds they advertise.

The new Vodafone marketing push will go under the slogan 'Power to you', replacing 'Make the most of now'. CEO Vittorio Colao told the London Financial Times that this would be part of the biggest change in marketing and branding strategy for five years. "It is not the brand talking any more and telling the customer what to do. It is the customer who will decide," he said. The new tagline will debut along with the new applications store, Vodafone 360, and web portal, which will replace the old Vodafone Live services.

Colao has been focusing heavily on marketing in recent months, reshuffling the team, appointing Wendy Becker (from Carphone Warehouse) as chief marketing officer in the UK, and moving the company headquarters to west London so that senior executives and the marketing teams will be in the same offices.

One of the top priorities for the new-look team may be to address the advertising and delivery of mobile broadband services, especially in the ultra-competitive dongle space. According to comparison site Broadband Expert, which tested 3,342 mobile broadband connections, the average download speed was 1.1Mbps compared to the average advertised maximum speed of 4.5Mbps. In fact, Vodafone delivered the fastest actual speed, averaging 1.3Mbps, but was also the most over-confident in its advertising, promising 7.2Mbps.

The real world speeds did not vary greatly between carriers, although T-Mobile was the lowest at 900Kbps (20% of its advertised speed, also 7.2Mbps, compared to Vodafone's 18% score). 3 UK achieved the highest percentage of advertised speeds - delivering 1.2Mbps while advertising just 3.6Mbps.

Rob Webber, Broadband Expert's commercial director, said in a statement: "Advertising unrealistic speeds will not help the long term growth of mobile broadband or the reputation of the providers if customers feel they are being misled." Fixed home broadband speeds averaged 3.6Mbps download, which was 44% of typical adverts. More details at http://www.broadband-expert.co.uk/.