* 1 Airtel
* 2 Touchtel
* 3 BlackBerry
* 4 iPhone 3G
* 5 Awards and recognition
* 6 In the news
* 7 Subscriber Base
* 8 References
* 9 External links

[edit] Airtel
Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India operated by Bharti Airtel.
Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India operated by Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of subscribers. Bharti Airtel owns the Airtel brand and provides the following services under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line, Internet Connectivity(DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise Services (Telecommunications Consulting for corporates). It has presence in all 23 circles of the country and covers 71% of the current population (as of FY07).

Leading international telecommunication companies such as Vodafone and SingTel held partial stakes in Bharti Airtel.

In April 2006 Bharti Global Limited was awarded a telecommunications licence in Jersey in the Channel Islands by the local telecommunications regulator the JCRA. In September 2006 the Office of Utility Regulation in Guernsey awarded Guernsey Airtel with a mobile telecommunications licence. In May 2007 Jersey Airtel and Guernsey Airtel announced the launch of a relationship with Vodafone for Island mobile subscribers. In July 2007, Bharti Airtel signed an MoU with Nokia-Siemens for a 900 million dollar expansion of its mobile and fixed network.[2] In August 2007, the company announced it will be launching a customized version of Google search engine that will provide an ‘array of services’ to its broadband customers.

In March 2008, Bharti Airtel will roll out third generation services in Sri Lanka in association with Singtel. This is because Singapore-based Asian telecom major Singtel, which owns a little over 30% in Bharti Airtel, is a major player in the 3G space as it has already third generation networks in several markets across Asia.[3]

[edit] Touchtel

Until September 18, 2004, Bharti provided fixed-line telephony and broadband services under the Touchtel brand. Bharti now provides all telecom services including fixed-line services under a common brand “Airtel”

[edit] BlackBerry

On 19th October 2004 Reliance announced the launch of a BlackBerry Wireless Solution in India. The launch is a result of a tie-up between Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited and Research In Motion (RIM).

[edit] iPhone 3G

As of 22nd August 2008, the Apple iPhone 3G is available in India on Airtel and Vodafone.

[edit] Awards and recognition

2006

* Wireless service provider of the year 2005 at the Frost and Sulivan Asia-Pacific ICT awards [4]
* Competitive service provider of the year 2005 at the Frost and Sulivan Asia-Pacific ICT awards

[edit] In the news

On February 12, 2007 Vodafone sold its 5.6% stake in AirTel back to AirTel for US $1.6 billion; and purchased a controlling stake in rival Hutchison Essar.

In its monthly press release[citation needed], following statistics have been presented for end of April 2007.

* Bharti Airtel added the highest ever net addition of 5.3 million customers in a single quarter (Q4-FY0607) and also the highest ever net addition of 18 million total subscribers in 2006-07
* The company will invest up to $3.5 billion this fiscal (07-08) in network expansion.
* It has an installed base of 40,000 cellsites and 59% population coverage
* After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in the company achieving 70% population coverage
* Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007
* It has set a target of 125 million subscribers by 2010
* Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bharti’s total subscriber base, an increase from 82.7% a year ago
* ARPU has dropped to Rs 406
* Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello tunes and Airtel Live) constituted 10% of total revenues during Q4, lower than 10.7% in the Q4 of the previous year
* Blended monthly minutes of usage per customer in Q4 was at 475 minutes
* Has completed 100% verification of its subscribers and in the process disconnected three lakh subscribers
* Bharti Airtel’s enterprise Services, President – David is busy connecting India to Europe. David announced the building of 15,000 km 3.84 Terrabit OFC sub-marince cable system connecting Europe [London] to India via the Middle East. The project is known as Europe India gateway [EIG] and is expected to cost $700 million, which is to be completed by Q2-2010. Alcatel Lucent and Tyco are the telecom vendors for the project.

Members in the EIG consortium include – AT&T, BT, C&W, Djibouti Telecom, Du, Gibtelecom, IAM, Libyan Telecom, MTN Group Ltd., Omantel, PT Comunicacoes-S.A, Saudi Telecom Company, Telecom Egypt, Telkom SA Ltd, and Verizon Business.

In May 2008, it emerged that Bharti Airtel was exploring the possibility of buying the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company with coverage in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. The Financial Times reported that Bharti was considering offering US$45 billion for a 100% stake in MTN, which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an Indian firm. However, both sides emphasize the tentative nature of the talks, while The Economist magazine noted, “If anything, Bharti would be marrying up,” as MTN has more subscribers, higher revenues and broader geographic coverage.[5] However, the talks fell apart as MTN group tried to reverse the negotiations by making Bharti almost a subsidiary of the new company [6]

[edit] Subscriber Base

The Airtel subscriber base according to COAI – Cellular Operator Association of India as of May 2008[7] was:

* Delhi – 4,055,704
* Mumbai – 2,468,016
* Chennai – 1,823,532
* Kolkata – 1,852,838

* Maharashtra & Goa – 4,345,945
* Gujarat – 3,004,824
* Andhra Pradesh – 6,516,332
* Karnataka – 7,316,500
* Tamil Nadu – 4,218,705
* Kerala – 1,703,298
* Punjab – 3,239,200
* Haryana – 1,067,990
* Uttar Pradesh (West) – 1,624,001
* Uttar Pradesh (East) – 3,897,278
* Rajasthan – 4,242,006
* Madhya Pradesh – 3,084,776
* West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar – 2,106,163
* Himachal Pradesh – 809,829
* Bihar – 4,912,900
* Orissa – 1,911,070
* Assam – 939,746
* North Eastern States – 585,213
* Jammu & Kashmir – 1,100,069

The total is 67,425,935 or 32.81% of the total 205,460,762 GSM mobile connections in India till May 2008.

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.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Vodafone in Europe
o 1.1 History
* 2 Vodafone in Asia-Pacific
o 2.1 History
* 3 Vodafone in the Middle East and Africa
o 3.1 History
* 4 Vodafone in the Americas
o 4.1 History
+ 4.1.1 United States
+ 4.1.2 Latin America
+ 4.1.3 Caribbean
* 5 Chief Executives
* 6 Financial results
* 7 Products
* 8 Corporate Sponsorship/Ownership
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

[edit] Vodafone in Europe
Networks in Europe Majority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership
Albania

France

Austria

Belgium
Czech Republic

Poland

Bulgaria

Channel Islands
Germany

Croatia

Cyprus
Greece

Denmark

Estonia
Hungary

Finland

Faroe Islands
Ireland

Iceland

Latvia
Italy

Lithuania

Luxembourg
Malta

Macedonia

Norway
Netherlands

Serbia

Slovenia
Northern Cyprus

Sweden

Switzerland
Portugal

Romania

Spain

Turkey

UK

[edit] 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.
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.
Vodafone in Iaşi, Romania.
A map showing Vodafone’s operations in Europe. Vodafone Vodafone’s affiliates Vodafone’s partners
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 Vodafone 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.

[edit] Vodafone in Asia-Pacific
Networks in Asia-Pacific Majority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership
Australia

China mainland

Afghanistan

Hong Kong
India

Fiji

Indonesia

Japan
New Zealand

India

Malaysia

Samoa

Singapore

Sri Lanka

[edit] 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.

[edit] Vodafone in the Middle East and Africa
Networks in the Middle East and Africa Majority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership
Egypt

DR Congo

Kenya

Bahrain
Ghana

Lesotho

Mozambique

Qatar1

South Africa2

Tanzania

1Network yet to be launched. Details pending further announcements.
2Network 50% owned.

[edit] 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. The same group-led consortium in Qatar wins the second fixed-line licence in the said country on 15 September 2008.

[edit] Vodafone in the Americas
Networks in the Americas Minority-owned No Ownership
USA

Anguilla

Antigua & Barbuda

Argentina

Aruba

Barbados

Bermuda

Bonaire

Brazil

Cayman Islands

Chile

Colombia

Curaçao

Dominica

Ecuador

El Salvador

French West Indies

Grenada

Guatemala

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Jamaica

Mexico

Nicaragua

Paraguay

Peru

St Kitts & Nevis

St Lucia

St Vincent & the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Turk & Caicos

Uruguay

[edit] History

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Chief Executives
Name Between
Sir Gerald Whent October 1988 – December 1996
Sir Christopher Gent January 1997 – July 2003
Arun Sarin July 2003 – July 2008
Vittorio Colao July 2008 – present

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.

[edit] 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.
Year ended 31 March Turnover £m Profit before tax £m Profit for the year £m Basic eps (pence) Proportionate customers (m)
2008 35,478 9,001 6,756 12.56 260
2007 31,104 (2,383) (5,297) (8.94) 206.4
2006* 29,350 (14,835) (21,821) (35.01) 170.6
2005 34,073 7,951 6,518 9.68 154.8
2004 36,492 9,013 6,112 8.70 133.4

*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.

[edit] Products

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

[edit] Corporate Sponsorship/Ownership
A Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton.
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.