Vodafone: Betting on an Economic Rebound in Europe

Outside the Verizon Wireless investment, Vodafone is a large wireless provider in the major European countries of Germany, the Netherlands, U.K., Italy, and Spain along with select investments in Africa and Asia. The company has roughly 500 million wireless subscribers around the world making it one of the largest mobile carriers. With the Verizon Wireless deal heading toward completion, the market is starting to wonder if Vodafone can justify its current price.

A rebound in Europe would help justify a long-term investment into Vodafone especially considering eMarketer lists that the U.S. market has already reached a 75% market penetration rate for high-speed data customers. Vodafone lists the primary European markets of Germany, U.K., and the Netherlands only reaching a smartphone penetration level of 39%. The rest of the markets are significantly below this level. Vodafone is clearly making a move out of the mature U.S. wireless market into the still developing European markets. A economic rebound in Europe would help Vodafone immensely.

Reviewing the deal
The deal involves Verizon paying Vodafone total consideration of roughly $130 billion. The primary details include the following:

• $58.9 billion in cash
• $60.2 billion in Verizon shares
• $5.0 billion in the form of Verizon notes
• $3.5 billion in the form of Verizon's 23% minority interest in Vodafone Italy
• $2.5 billion in the assumption by Verizon of Vodafone net liabilities relating to Verizon Wireless

source: www.fool.com

Vodafone to Expand Turkey Network

Vodafone Turkey, a division of Vodafone Group plc has reportedly signed a 15-year deal worth a $61.5 million with state power transmission company – Teias – for providing fiber network. Per the deal, Vodafone will expand its fiber network by two-and-half times to 16,000 kilometers (9,941 miles) by adding lines from Teias.

According to a Bloomberg report, Vodafone Turkey will invest approximately 300 million liras in the infrastructure. We believe that such growth plans in regions like Turkey enable the company foster its business in the European continent.  

The company expects the deal to remain accretive to its infrastructural development including expansion of the fiber lines of Vodafone’s global network to 1 million kilometers. Further, it expects the deal to foster 4G deployment in the country. Currently, the biggest competitor to the company is expected to be Turk Telecom, the largest telecom company in Turkey that boasts fiber deployments of 74,000 kilometers. Further, Vodafone Group expects to continue fiber expansion in other countries like Iran, Syria, Georgia, Iraq, India.  

Besides infrastructural developments, we believe Vodafone’s future growth hinges on key drivers like increasing mobile data services, growth in enterprise markets through converged fixed and mobile services (Vodafone One Net), new pricing plans such as Vodafone Red, growth in emerging markets including Eastern Europe, India and Africa, growth in machine-to-machine, near-field communications and as well as maintaining liquid investment in quality networks.

source: www.zacks.com

Kenyan developer wins Appstar challenge

The winners of the 2013 Vodafone Safaricom Appstar challenge have been announced.

Kenyan app Automs.gs has won the 2013 Appstar Challenge - a partnership between Safaricom and Vodafone designed to give support mobile app developers in emerging markets. At the finals in Nairobi yesterday, Bernard Mukangu's Automs.gs was named the overall winner. Automs.gs is an SMS scheduler app that allows the automatic sending of personalized text messages on pre-scheduled dates.

India’s Kunal Mahajan’s Matchbox puzzle game app was the runner up, while South Africa’s Lynette Huundermark took third place with the GoMetro commuter information app.

A total of 2,200 apps developers registered for this year’s Appstar challenge and eight developers from Kenya, India, South Africa and Tanzania reached the finals to compete for cash prizes valued at USD 22,000.

“The idea to come up with Automs.gs was born when I forgot to send my girlfriend a message to wish her a happy birthday and as a result she was very cross with me. From that day I purposed to develop an application that would ensure that I would never forget important events in the lives of those I care about both at a personal and professional level,” said Mukangu after being named the grand winner of the 2013 Appstar Challenge.

Mukangu started his career at Nairobits incubation hub in South B, where youth from informal settlements are given a chance to study mobile Apps development for free.

“The best innovators are not people who create things because they are smart. Truly innovative people are those who try to find a way of addressing current unsolved problems, unmet needs and unresolved inadequacies in the societies they live in. They understand that every problem or challenge in the society is in fact an opportunity,” said Bob Collymore, CEO Safaricom Limited.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

Kenyan developer wins Appstar challenge

The winners of the 2013 Vodafone Safaricom Appstar challenge have been announced.

Kenyan app Automs.gs has won the 2013 Appstar Challenge - a partnership between Safaricom and Vodafone designed to give support mobile app developers in emerging markets. At the finals in Nairobi yesterday, Bernard Mukangu's Automs.gs was named the overall winner. Automs.gs is an SMS scheduler app that allows the automatic sending of personalized text messages on pre-scheduled dates.

India’s Kunal Mahajan’s Matchbox puzzle game app was the runner up, while South Africa’s Lynette Huundermark took third place with the GoMetro commuter information app.

A total of 2,200 apps developers registered for this year’s Appstar challenge and eight developers from Kenya, India, South Africa and Tanzania reached the finals to compete for cash prizes valued at USD 22,000.

“The idea to come up with Automs.gs was born when I forgot to send my girlfriend a message to wish her a happy birthday and as a result she was very cross with me. From that day I purposed to develop an application that would ensure that I would never forget important events in the lives of those I care about both at a personal and professional level,” said Mukangu after being named the grand winner of the 2013 Appstar Challenge.

Mukangu started his career at Nairobits incubation hub in South B, where youth from informal settlements are given a chance to study mobile Apps development for free.

“The best innovators are not people who create things because they are smart. Truly innovative people are those who try to find a way of addressing current unsolved problems, unmet needs and unresolved inadequacies in the societies they live in. They understand that every problem or challenge in the society is in fact an opportunity,” said Bob Collymore, CEO Safaricom Limited.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

orange-dragged again into a mobile price war

Orange (ORAN) is the largest telecommunications group in France, and one of the largest in the world, with more than 232 million customers (a year-on-year increase of 2.1% at the end of September 2013) located in roughly 32 countries. The group's 3rd quarter results were announced on October 23, 2013. These results were less bad than previous quarters, confirming the slow stabilization of the company.

On the Road to Recovery?

Orange gained 1.1 million customers during the 3rd quarter, its revenues dropped by "only" 4% year-on-year (compared to 4.3% during 2nd quarter), and the EBITDA margin remained a healthy 33.1% (only 1.1% below the margin of 3rd quarter 2012). Compared to the record 50.4% EBITDA margin reported by Verizon Wireless in April 2013, this might sound tame, but it compares favorably to the 30% reported at the end of September by giant Vodafone. Revenues of Orange increased in Spain, Africa and the Middle-East. The ARPU --- average revenues per user --- continued its drop, at -12% year-on-year in France, but this was in line with expectations. No surprise here. The group headcount was decreased by 2.8% over 9 months, which helped reduce costs. Additionally, Orange pursued its 4G deployment, with 40% of French population expected to be covered by 4G wireless service before the end of this year. In short, 3rd quarter results were far from stellar, but they confirmed the slow improvement started during the 2nd quarter. That positive trend, and the hope that Orange will benefit from an improvement in the European Union economy, conspired to raise the share price by 32% (at the close of December 18), from its trough of July 2013, as can be seen in the following chart (from Google):

source:www.speekingalpha.com

India is vodafone's 2nd largest country in data traffic, 3G is 30% of data traffic

India is now Vodafone’s second largest business in terms of data traffic. This was disclosed by Vodafone Group CTO Steve Pusey during the company’s earnings conference call last week.

He added that India accounted for around 40 petabytes of the total 85 petabytes data traffic in the AMAP (Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Region) region in the first half year, doubling year on year (YoY).

Last week, the telco had reported a moderate increase in its data subscriptions, clocking 42.5 million data subscriptions of which 4.5 million were 3G subscriptions. The data revenues however had declined to £111 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, down from £123 million in the previous quarter.

Later in the call, Nick Read, Vodafone CEO (Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Region) said its 3G browsing revenues are up 190% for this quarter and the smartphone penetration of its customer base has increased by 40% since the start of FY14. 3G traffic now accounts for 30% of the total data traffic. ”We see a massive opportunity now in terms of ARPU uplift, and in terms of further growth coming from India for the operators that are willing to put significant investment in data networks, especially in the urban areas.”

- Vodafone plans to setup 27,000 3G sites and extend its outdoor 3G coverage to over 90% of urban areas in India. The company also plans to extend its 3G coverage to 200 new towns in the country. There are also plans to setup 14,000 2G sites and roll out 14,000 km of fibre across 40 Indian cities, which will be extended t0 100 cities later.

- Read noted the top three operators have started to increase their existing market share and currently account for 66% of the revenues for the quarter. “As the smaller players, the more vulnerable players, leave the circles, or the market completely, we are able to grab more of the minutes and more of the customers in a dual SIM environment”.

source: medianama.com

Twitter to be available on entry level mobile phones without internet

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet.

U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters.

Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, 

More than 11 million people use U2opia's Fonetwish service, which helps access Facebook and Google Talk on mobile without a data connection.

Twitter, which boasts of about 230 million users, held a successful initial public offering last month that valued the company at around $25 billion.

U2opia uses a telecom protocol named USSD, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which does not allow viewing of pictures, videos or other graphics.

"USSD as a vehicle for Twitter is almost hand in glove because Twitter has by design a character limit, it's a very text-driven social network," Menon said.

Eight out of 10 people in emerging markets are still not accessing data on their phone, he said.

U2opia, which is present in 30 countries in seven international languages, will localise the Twitter feed according to the location of the user.

"So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localized to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore," he said.

The company, whose biggest markets are Africa and South America, partners with telecom carriers such as Telenor, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel. U2opia usually gets 30 to 40 per cent of what users pay its telecom partners to access Fonetwish

source: www.ibnlive.in

Vodafone to announe GBP 7bln network investment

Vodafone could soon announce plans to invest GBP 7 billion more into its fixed and mobile broadband networks and support systems in the coming few years, LightReading reported, adding that the company is also shaking up its top group technology team. Group CTO Steve Pusey will likely retain his position. Current Group Networks director Andy MacLeod is seen taking up a new role as head of technology for the Africa, Middle East, and Asia (AME) region, while his counterpart in Europe will be Alberto Ripepi, the current CTO at Vodafone Italy. Vodafone declined to comment. The operator recently launched the Project Spring spending plan, which includes investments in fixed broadband, enterprise services support, and customer experience management (CEM) systems as well as 3G and 4G mobile broadband technology. MacLoed recently noted at a Huawei conference in London that Vodafone will be investing in a number of specialised and emerging technologies such as video optimisation and distributed content management systems, advanced microwave backhaul technology, small cells, LTE-Advanced, and SON (self-organizing networks) systems.

source:www.telecompaper.com

vodafone spends billions to upgrade network coverage

vodafdone is  to spend £7bn upgrading its networks, with an extra £300m committed to the UK, as it prepares for an end to the European economic crisis.

Hundreds of new masts and radios will be installed to boost coverage, with London benefiting from £150m of spend over the next two years, and a 30% increase in masts.

A further £150m will go to the rest of the UK, bringing to £1.2bn the sum Vodafone will spend on its British network over the next three years.

The money is earmarked to improve 3G coverage and roll out faster 4G technology, and to expand Vodafone's retail empire.

"Whilst trading conditions in Europe remain very tough at present," said the Vodafone chief executive, Vittorio Colao, "we are encouraged by the forecast return to economic growth over the next two years and the potential for a shift in regulatory focus to support greater industry investment and consolidation."

Vodafone on Tuesday added £1bn to the £6bn of cash earmarked for Project Spring, which will pay for faster and wider mobile internet coverage and expand the group's TV and broadband activities on the continent following the $130bn (£81bn) sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless.

The company is betting that a European turnaround will counter another half-year of rapidly falling revenues in its major markets.

Organic service revenue – which includes calls, texts and data charges but excludes handsets – was down nearly 5% in the six months to 30 September across the group, with northern and central Europe down 5% and southern Europe nearly 16%. Revenues in Asia and Africa rose nearly 6%.

UK service revenue decreased 4.4%, while in Italy the decline was nearly 17%.

As well as providing cash for networks, the Verizon sale allowed Vodafone to book nearly £17bn of deferred tax losses that it will use to reduce its tax payments over the long term.

source: www.theguardian.com

telecom- led relief in the philippines

The rapid deployment of engineers by international and national telecommunications companies to hard-hit areas of the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan demonstrates the private sector’s increasingly vital role in relief efforts.
 
With more mobile phone subscriptions than people in the Philippines (107 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people), and industry estimates of at least one billion text messages sent daily, analysts say the telecommunications industry is not only able to re-connect the estimated 3.8 million displaced people with their families, but is also an ideal vehicle for raising relief funds.
 
Telecommunications play a critical role in disaster preparedness and response by disseminating early warning messages, tracing survivors and providing vital aid information, said Kyla Reid, the head of disaster response at the London-headquartered Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), a trade organization representing more than 800 mobile network operators worldwide.
 
Within 72 hours after Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) hit the central Philippines on 8 November, international mobile companies Vodafone and Ericsson deployed teams equipped with emergency kits to help local providers get the network running again.
 
Philippine mobile carriers Globe Telecom and SMART Communications together control 99 percent of the national mobile phone industry. “We worked with various government agencies and even the military in order to get network equipment parts and infrastructure up and running,” said Ma Yolanda Crisanto, Globe's head of corporate communications.

Vodafone Foundation, the company’s charitable arm, sent a 100kg portable instant network contained in four suitcases to set up satellite terminals in Palo region, just south of Tacloban.

source: irinnews.org

Huawei appoints new North Africa president as part of committee to development accross the region

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Mr. PAN Fan as the president of Huawei’s North Africa Region, a significant appointment reaffirming Huawei’s long-term commitment and investment in this strategically important region.

As president, Mr. Pan will be responsible for Huawei’s overall business and development in North Africa. Mr. Pan’s appointment will strengthen Huawei’s consumer business in different key areas as the company gains momentum to be a recognized leading global brand in ICT industry. In addition to a key objective to ensure the fulfillment of corporate strategies; take responsibility for the overall business results and customer satisfaction of the region; ensure the achievement of the global business goals and competition goals of the key account departments in the region.

Mr. Pan brings with him significant industry experience including within the African continent, having most recently held the position of General Manager of Huawei Nigeria, based in Lagos, where he was oversaw the management and administration of Huawei’s operations in the country.

“I am honored and excited to be given this opportunity to lead the Huawei team in North Africa. ICT has been identified as one of the key economic growth drivers for the region and many governments have made this a priority sector for strategic investments in the next 3 to 5 years. Huawei believes that the digital makeover of the region’s ICT infrastructure will create significant employment opportunities and spur socio-economic growth and investment, and we look forward to contributing to this sustainable development,” said Mr. Pan.

Huawei’s first office in North Africa was established in Cairo, Egypt in 1998, and today, Huawei has a workforce of over 2,000 employees, of which 70% are local hires, in 20 countries across this region. In all of the markets where Huawei operates, the company develops customer-centric products and solutions to meet the needs of its local customers across the carrier network, enterprise and consumer business. In North Africa, this includes providing innovative solutions to create maximum value for telecom operators including Orascom Telecom Group, Maroc Telecom Group, Algeria Telecom, MTN Sudan, Vodafone, Orange, Mobinil, Etisalat, Sudatel Group and Libyana, Huawei also leverages its global innovation capabilities across multiple business disciplines to introduce next-generation technology to the region and provide competitive ICT solutions for its businesses and consumers. In addition, Huawei provides consulting services to customers across multiple technologies including wireless, core network, application and software, fixed network, terminals and devices, managed services and enterprise solutions.

source: africanbrains.net

Kirusa captures the imagination of Ghanaians with celeb connect service

ACCRA, GHANA and NEW YORK, NY and CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired - Nov 14, 2013) - Kirusa, the leader in voice and social media solutions for mobile users in emerging markets, announced a partnership with Makeba Creates, a leading celebrity agency in Ghana. This partnership enables top celebrities like John Dumelo, Efya, Mzbel, Reggie Rockstone, amongst others, to more personally engage with their fans in their own voice.

Using Celeb Connect, celebrities can share their daily lives, thoughts, and emotions in their own voice with their fans. Participating stars can call or use smartphones to leave messages. These messages are then delivered immediately to fans, who can listen to what is happening in their most cherished celebrities' lives, in the celebrities' own voice, which creates a "Voice Twitter"-like experience. Ghanaian subscribers can see messages, call, and listen to what's happening over the phone, or on the web at vobolo.com, and can share with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Further, the fans get an opportunity to speak and engage with the celebrities on-line and off-line.

The Celeb Connect service, powered by Kirusa's Vobolo™ social media platform, is currently available to mobile subscribers of Airtel, Tigo, and Vodafone in Ghana. Airtel and Vodafone users can dial 2510 and Tigo users can dial 1001 from their mobile and subscribe to the service.

There is a huge interest amongst Ghanaian people to listen to the daily happenings in the lives of their stars, with a whopping 860,000 people following John Dumelo, Efya, Mzbel, and Reggie Rockstone in the first few months. To share a perspective, these stars have 240,000+ followers on Twitter and 700,000+ on Facebook.

Makeba Boateng, CEO, Makeba Creates Ltd., states, "Kirusa's Vobolo platform is unrivaled in its state-of-the-art technology and innovative solutions. Our proficiency in our respective fields delivers a privileged service to the fans. Connecting celebrities to consumers is an inevitable development of the digital age. It has been happening online for many years now and using mobile voice is an added dimension."

source: www.marketwired.com

local telecom industry abuzz with number of deals

The amount involved in the deal has not been revealed yet, but it is said to be between R5-billion and R10-billion. Another thing that has come into notice is that AT&T is quite interested in taking over Vodafone.

Experts were of the view that Vodafone has been trying hard to establish itself in Europe and they are getting successful as well in the task. If the deal takes place then Vodafone will not be able to achieve its goal.

Vodafone owns 65% of Vodacom, which will also be a massive deal. Speculations have already started, as per which, Orange is considered to be the most likely bidder for Vodacom. It has been said so as Vodacom's operations are well established in Botswana, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.

But when asked from Orange, they have affirmed that no discussion of such sort has taken place. Sebastien Crozier, CEO of Orange subsidiary Orange Horizons, has affirmed that a number of things depend on Vodacom's deal with Neotal.

Vodafone Ghana awards its digital compaign winners

The Vodafone Ghana has awarded winners of its maiden digital campaign dubbed DO More Gh campaign. At a ceremony held in Accra, Lorna Tetteh, Ricky Ansong and Percy Osei-Appiah received GHS 3,000 each and Vodafone souvenirs after sharing their dreams and aspirations on Vodafone Ghana’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Vodafone Ghana in July this year introduced an online campaign to empower young Ghanaians on social media platforms to achieve more with their lives. Themed #DoMoreGh, several people shared their aspirations and dreams on Vodafone Ghana’s social media pages.

Out of hundreds of entries 5 outstanding ambitions were shortlisted and put forward for Ghanaians to vote for the best 3.

Second runner up, Percy Osei-Appiah tweeted that he had written a ‘spoken word’ song on bridging the gap between online and offline communication and needed support to shoot the video.

Ricky Ansong, the first runner up posted on Facebook that he had written a book about children in James Town-Accra and needed support to publish the book so he could distribute to the children.

The ultimate winner Lorna Tetteh, posted on Facebook that she needed financial support for her orphanage ‘Give them Hope’, which she runs with a group of friends.

Speaking at ceremony held on the University of Ghana campus, the Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Uche Ofodile, reiterated Vodafone Ghana’s commitment in providing Ghanaians with a reliable network that empowers everyone to stay confidently connected. This according to her is done by offering the best experience on our network.

vodafone Ghana loses case over 11 million debt

Ghana's International Rom has won a High Court order against Vodafone Ghana for the operator's failure to settle a debt awarded against it last May, the Daily Graphic reported. This followed an exparte motion filed by the plaintiff to get Vodafone to settle the debt of over USD 11 million and GHC 170,853.08 with accrued interest.

The High Court also ordered the managing directors of Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank to appear before it on 21 November to show cause why monies standing to the credit of Vodafone should not be applied to settle the judgement debt.

On 19 August 2009, International Rom filed a lawsuit against Vodafone for the illegal termination of a contract, the payment of outstanding bills with interest at prevailing bank rates for contracts executed, as well as special and general damages for breach of contract.

This followed Vodafone's decision not to continue doing business with International Rom, after Vodafone took over Ghana Telecom, and awarded a contract to Huawei. Before the takeover, Ghana Telecom had contracted International Rom to undertake contracts including the delivery, installation, testing, commissioning, maintenance and other support services for the expansion of its business.

That deal was executed, even though from time to time the telecoms company reneged on its side of the contract to provide funds on time for the projects to be executed. This had compelled International Rom to take out commercial loans to continue with the projects.

source: www.telecompaper.com

vodafone to spend more on networks as revenue drops

Investments in "Project Spring," the network-improvement project announced in September, will expand to £7 billion ($11.2 billion) by March 2016 - a year ahead of schedule and £1 billion extra - Vodafone. Service revenue, excluding currency swings and acquisitions, fell 4.9 per cent in the quarter ended September 30, missing analysts' estimates for a 4.6 per cent decline, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

CEO Vittorio Colao is betting that Vodafone can benefit from investing ahead of a recovery in European markets, expanding the reach of faster mobile and fibre broadband services. Including Project Spring, Vodafone will spend more than £19 billion on its network by 2016, Colao said on a conference call . It may be difficult for competitors to keep pace with the Newbury, England-based company's spending, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service.

"The clear, underlying message is that most companies in Europe are going to have to step up their capex in order to accelerate convergence to set off the challenges coming from Vodafone," said Carlos Winzer, senior vice president of corporate finance at Moody's.