Smartphones drive Vodafone Ireland’s Q4 growth
Vodafone’s Irish mobile unit states that increasing popularity for smartphones and mobile broadband packages were behind its strong subscriber growth in the last three months of 2010.
The company ended the year with around 2.217 million mobile users, thanks to 34,000 net additions in Q4, up from 2.145 million a year earlier.
The company has reported that almost one in two devices sold by Vodafone Ireland in December was a smartphone predominantly Apple’s iPhone and Google-based Android handsets. Including the operator’s fixed line and DSL businesses, the total subscriber figure rose to 2.4 million at the year end.
According to Vodafone, mobile quarterly minutes of use (MOU) per customer grew 5% year-on-year, to 273 minutes in 4Q10. In addition, data traffic increased by around 5% in the fourth quarter, aided by the poor weather experienced in the country, which forced a large number of people to work from home during December. However, blended average revenue per user (ARPU) fell by 6.9% to US$41.8 a month.
The cellco also announced the launch of a new device designed to boost 3G signal coverage indoors. Vodafone’s ‘Sure Signal ‘device is a femtocell that uses a fixed line broadband connection to create a 3G signal for its network if there is none available, or boost weak signal.
The device, which will go on sale in about two weeks, will cost less than US$129.04.
ComReg rejects mobile TV licence plans (Ireland)
The Irish telecoms regulator ComReg will not be proceeding further with a plan to offer a mobile broadcast licence covering five urban areas of the country, stating that following a consultation period, it became apparent to ComReg that use of the identified spectrum to provide a Mobile TV service in Ireland was not the subject of particularly strong interest to potential operators, and interest in the proposed procedure to grant the authorization diminished.
According to ComReg, after seeing further information on interest from stakeholders, it received just one response, from Vodafone Ireland, which agreed with the decision not to go ahead with the plan. The regulator further revealed that it will keep under review the potential for the identification of spectrum which would enable the award of dedicated licences for mobile TV, and that future, technology-neutral awards of UHF spectrum could be used for mobile broadcast services.
The decision further highlights that the lack of success for mobile broadcast services on an international basis, having once been seen as a potential big thing for the industry. The most high-profile failure was Qualcomm’s MediaFLO venture, which is to be closed imminently having failed to become a viable service.
While there have been a number of pilots and commercial mobile broadcast launches globally, these have not led to significant subscriber interest, and in South Korea, which has been something of a market leader, ecosystem participants have struggled to monetise services.
According to research reports, the number of mobile broadcast subscribers will not reach 10 million globally until 2013 at the earliest, at which point more than 180 million subscribers will be accessing multimedia services via 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks. Trials are also underway of mobile broadcast technology which is more closely related to mobile standards.
Vodafone Ireland to clean up unused subscriber base
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Clean up of the subscriber base has been planned by Vodafone’s Irish subsidiary by disconnecting lines which have not been used for eight months. Any outstanding credit on accounts would be held by the operator under this plan and will not be returned to the end user.
The terms and conditions of the new restrictions will be explained by the company and it will be published next month. The strategy behind this move is also to recycle mobile numbers deemed to be no longer in use.
According to a Vodafone Ireland spokesperson, the changes will have a minimal impact on customer numbers but it is mindful ‘of the concerns of a very small number of customers who may consciously omit to top up their accounts for a prolonged period of time for specific reasons.
Vodafone Ireland to make heavy investment in 3.5G
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: To upgrade the national mobile network to so-called ‘3.5G’ technology, tens of millions of Euros will be spent by Vodafone’s Irish subsidiary, Vodafone Ireland. The announcement came after the parent group predicted better than expected cash flow and profits for the full-year ended March 31, 2010.
26,000 net new mobile subscribers during three months to December 31, 2009 have been made by Vodafone Ireland despite a difficult economic climate in the Republic. This raised the total to just under 2.15 million, the highest among the country’s mobile operators.
9,000 fixed line customers during the last quarter have also been added by Vodafone, bringing its total to 186,000.
Vodafone responds to job loss ‘speculation’
Vodafone Ireland has dismissed as unqualified speculation??? reports at the weekend suggesting that up to 120 IT workers could be made redundant following a decision to outsource services to IBM and EDS.
Earlier this month Vodafone Group announced that EDS and IBM had been selected as preferred suppliers to manage Vodafone’s applications development and maintenance services on a global basis.
Each outsourcing partner is expected to provide these services on a country-by-country basis. For example, IBM and EDS’s operations in Ireland would pitch to Vodafone Ireland.
A report in the Sunday Times at the weekend suggested that at least 10 IT contractors and 20 permanent staff workers would be directly affected.
Sources close to the company said that negotiations have only begun this morning, no deals have been signed and that it was too early to assess the result of negotiations.
In a statement the company said: Once Vodafone Group’s negotiations with the preferred suppliers are concluded, Vodafone Ireland will then be able, in the coming months, to conclude negotiations and finalise contracts with its selected preferred supplier.
To date no contracts have been signed with either partner; consequently, any assumption relating to the outcome of the negotiation process is unqualified speculation.
Due to the nature of the contract negotiation process, Vodafone Ireland is not in a position to make any further comment on this matter,??? the company stated.
Source- http://www.siliconrepublic.com
