AA

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“A Comparative study of mobile service provided by

Vodafone company with other telecom company &

customer satisfaction survey ”

For the fulfilment of the degree of Master of Business

Administration.

M.B.A. (2010-2012)

SUBMITTED BY:- SUPERVISED BY:- MAHESH CHAHAR MS. KAVITASHEKHAVAT (MBA 2ND YEAR ) ( FACULTY GUIDE )

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project is an outcome of six weeks, which I have to undergo for the partial fulfillment of the MBA program. I wish to put on record my sincere gratitude to the following person without whose support the completion of this project would not have been possible. With immense pleasure I am to present this project on “A Comparative study of mobile service provided by Vodafone Company With other Telecom company & Customer Satisfaction Survey ” I express my special thanks to Ms.KAVITA SHEKHAVAT(Project Guider) for guidance & encouragement in project maintenance.

. MAHESH CHAHARM.B.A.-2 Year

PREFACE

The summer training project work has an objective to make

management student familiar with real life business

situation and give an opportunity to the student to

understand the theoretical concept of marketing in practical

way. I am extremely happy to present the report before my

respected teacher the project report entitled to me is “A

Comparative study of mobile service provided by Vodafone

Company With other Telecom company & Customer

Satisfaction Survey ” As the Vodafone Ltd. is a biggest

telecom company of entire world. The competition is

growing day by day some other telecom services his

situation to touch competitions and entry of foreign

companies in India promoted me to do the work on the

sales promotion market.

In this project I have done the survey of “ Sikar city ” market in telecom aria.

Executive Summary

The report is an earnest endeavor made to understand the

Comparative study of mobile service provided by Vodafone Company

With other Telecom company & Customer Satisfaction Survey . We

are required to see the coverage by Vodafone Pvt. Ltd., and

bring out the potential and loyal retailers so that the

company could maintain the market leadership in the

existing business scenario in the improvement of company’s

image & customer satisfaction. During the course of study

we visited & analyzed round 40 unorganized retail stores

and 30 organized retail stores of Vodafone & Other telecom

for the comparative study and customer satisfaction , which

are most preferred among the retailers.Their motive was to

study the working of the distributors in Jaipur market. They

have mentioned the problems and the loop holes in the

Vodafone service system and the promotional tools, which

they have found during the course of the study and

recommended various corrective measures for it. Their study

also comprises the comparative analysis between Vodafone

and All Other telecom with the help of hypothesis testing.

They also studied the behaviour of consumers about their

preferences for Sim ,recharge vouchers, Vodafone plan &

service , all attractive margin & scheme, and their overall

behaviour with the help of questionnaire.

Table of Content

Acknowledgement

Preface

Executive Summary

1. Introduction (a) Introduction of the company (b) Company profile

(c) Product profile

2. Objective of study 3. Research Methodology 4. Customer satisfaction survey 5. Data Analysis 7. Conclusion /- Limitation 6. Recommendation /- Suggestion 8. Questionnaires 9. Bibliography

COMPANY PROFILE

1. INTRODUCTION

2. COMPANY PROFILE

3. PRODUCT PROFILE

About Vodafone

We will be the communications leader in an increasingly connectedworld Vodafone Group Plc is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the Company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments. The Group's mobile subsidiaries operate under the brand name 'Vodafone'. In the United States the Group's associated undertaking operates as Verizon Wireless. During the last two financial years, the Group has also entered into arrangements with network operators in countries where the Group does not hold an equity stake. Under the terms of these Partner Network Agreements, the Group and its partner networks co-operate in the development and marketing of global services under dual brand logos. At 30 June 2008, based on the registered customers of mobile telecommunications Ventures in which it had ownership interests at that date, the Group had 269million customers, excluding paging customers, calculated on a proportionate basis in accordance with the Company's percentage interest in these ventures. aThe Company's ordinary shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Company's American Depositary Shares ('ADSs') are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Company had a total market capitalisation of approximatel y £79 billion at 30 June 2008. Vodafone Group Plc is a public limited company incorporated in England under registered number 1833679. Its registered office is Vodafone House, TheConnection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN, England.

HISTORY

History

In 1980, Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, chairman of Racal Electronics plc's, the UK's largest maker of military radio technology, agreed a deal with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc to allow Racal to access some of GEC's tactical battlefield radio technology. Briefing the head of Racal's military radio division Gerry Whent to drive the company into commercial mobile radio, Whent visited GE's factory in Virginia, USA in 1980.

In 1982, Racal's newly formed subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd under CEO Whent, won one of two UK cellular telephone network licences; the other going to British Telecom The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, Millicom with 15% and Hambros Technology Trust 5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985. Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985. On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB£110 million.

Under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders (the mobile unit was being valued at the same amount as the whole Racal group), 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. On 16 September 1991, Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.

In July 1996, Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million. 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. In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores.

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. To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk. The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.

On 21 September 1999, Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless. 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 purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator. 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. 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. 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

A map showing Vodafone Global Enterprise' footprint.   Vodafone Operating Countries  Vodafone's partners and affiliates

In 2001, the Company acquired Eircell, the largest wireless communications company in the Republic of Ireland, from eircom. Eircell was subsequently rebranded as Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone 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.)

Networks

Europe

Networks in EuropeMajority-

ownedMinority-

ownedNo Ownership

Albania France Austria Belgium

Czech Republic Poland BulgariaChannel Islands

Germany Croatia CyprusGreece Denmark Estonia

Hungary Finland Faroe IslandsIreland Iceland LatviaItaly Lithuania Luxembourg

MaltaRep. of

MacedoniaNorway

Netherlands Russia SerbiaSlovenia SwedenPortugal Switzerland UkraineRomania

SpainTurkey

UK

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, Omnitel (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 1.5 million 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 US$4.5 billion.[26] 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. On 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.

Vodafone HQ in Ireland at Central Park, Leopardstown Rd.

On 12 March 2006, former chief, Sir Christopher Gent, who was appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quit following rumours of boardroom rifts.[citation needed] In April 2006, the Company announced that it had 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 then 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,[27] 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, signalling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the information and communication technologies (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. In addition, Vodafone Turkey also gives service in Northern Cyprus. 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.[28] 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.[29] On 1 August 2007, Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

Vodafone Lion of Munich's Löwenparade

At the end of 2007, Vodafone Germany was ranked 6th in Europe by subscriber numbers, whilst its Italian operation was listed as 10th. Vodafone UK was ranked 13th, whilst Spain was listed in 16th place.[30]

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 the Republic of Macedonia. In May 2008, Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone Faroe Islands.

On 30 October 2008, the company announced a strategic, non-equity partnership with Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group of

Russia. The agreement adds Russia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to the group footprint.[31]

On 20 March 2009, it was announced that the group's Luxembourg partner has been changed to Tango: the agreement with LuxGSM was not renewed in favour of Tango, the Luxembourg unit of another partner network, Belgacom of Belgium.[32]

On December 2009, Vodafone Spain created a fake entry on Wikipedia to promote a mobile phone plan called "Feliz Borabó".[33]

[edit] Asia-Pacific

Networks in Asia-PacificMajority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership

Australia China mainland Afghanistan ArmeniaIndia Fiji Azerbaijan Hong Kong

New Zealand Japan MalaysiaSamoa Singapore

Sri Lanka TaiwanThailand Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

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.

The Vodafone building on Fanshawe Street, corner Halsey street, looking northeast, Auckland City, New Zealand.

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.[34]

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 internet

service provider, 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 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. What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji recently[when?] launched, and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji.

On 10 February 2008, Vodafone announced the launching of M-Paisa mobile money transfer service on Roshan's (Afghanistan's largest GSM operator) network: Afghanistan was added to the Vodafone footprint.

On 5 September 2008, Vodafone purchased Australia's largest bricks and mortar mobile phone retailer Crazy John's adding 115 retail stores to its local operations.[35]

On 9 February 2009, Vodafone announced a merger with 3/Hutchison via a joint venture company VHA Pty Ltd, which

would offer products under the Vodafone brand. dtac in Thailand is signed as a partner network of the Group on 25 March 2009.

On 19 June 2009, Vodafone-Hutchison Australia (VHA) announced the end of its outsourcing of retail operations. VHA committed to buying back and managing its entire retail operation, including 208 Vodafone-branded retail outlets Australia-wide. This project was slated to be completed by 1 September 2009.

On 31 August 2009, Vodafone enabled an extended 900mhz 3G UMTS network which functions outside their 2100mhz 3G network, boosting Vodafone's 3G population coverage from around 8% to around 94% on dual-band 900/2100mhz 3G UMTS devices.

Nar Mobile in Azerbaijan was signed as a Partner Network on 22 July 2009, while Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan was signed on 12 November 2009.

[edit] Africa and the Middle East

Networks in the Middle East and Africa

Majority-ownedMinority-

ownedNo Ownership

DR Congo1 Egypt Kenya KuwaitGhana Lesotho1 Bahrain

Mozambique1 Qatar2 LibyaTanzania1 South Africa1 UAE

1Majority stakes held through majority-owned Vodacom Group2Effective ownership is not majority, but full control exercised by

the group.Egypt

In November 1998, Vodafone Egypt network went live under the name ClickGSM.

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.

On 28 January 2011, Vodafone complied with Egyptian government instructions to suspend Internet service "in selected areas" during a period of anti-Mubarak protests. The company issued a statement that "Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it."[36][37]

Vodafone also received public and media criticism for allowing the authorities to send mass pro-government messages via SMS over their network during the protests. One such message requested that "honest and loyal men" should "confront the traitors and criminals". Vodafone later issued a statement asserting that they had no choice but to allow the messages to be broadcast, and that they had complained to the Egyptian authorities about the practice.[38]

Kuwait

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.

South Africa (Vodacom)

On 3 November 2004, the Company announced 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. Vodafone now owns 65% of Vodacom after purchasing a 15% stake from Telkom.[39]

On 9 October 2008, the company offered to acquire an additional 15 per cent stake in Vodacom group from Telkom. The finalised details of the agreement were announced on 6 November 2008. The agreement called for Telkom to sell 15 per cent of its 50 per cent stake in Vodacom to the group, and demerge the other 35 per cent to its shareholder. Meanwhile, Vodafone has agreed to make Vodacom its exclusive sub-Saharan Africa investment vehicle, as well as continuing to maintain the visibility of the Vodacom brand. The transaction is closed in May/June 2009.

On 18 May 2009, Vodacom entered the JSE Limited stock exchange in South Africa after Vodafone increased its stake by 15% to 65% to take a majority holding, despite disputes by local trade unions.

Ghana

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 won the second fixed-line licence in Qatar on 15 September 2008.

On 15 April 2009, Ghana Telecom, along with its mobile subsidiary onetouch, was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana.

U.A.E.

On 28 January 2009, the group announced a partner network agreement with Du, the second-largest operator of the United Arab Emirates. The agreement involved co-operation on international clients, handset procurement, mobile broadband etc.

Libya

On 24 February 2010, the group signed a partner network agreement with the second-largest operator in Libya, al Madar.

[edit] The Americas

Networks in the AmericasMinority-

ownedNo Ownership

USA1 Anguilla2 Antigua & Barbuda2 Aruba2 Barbados2

Bermuda2 Bonaire2 Canada3 Cayman Islands2

Chile4 Curaçao2 Dominica2 French West Indies2

Grenada2 Guyana2 Haiti2 Honduras2

Jamaica2 Panama2 St. Kitts & Nevis2 St. Lucia2

St. Vincent & the Grenadines2

Trinidad & Tobago2

Turk & Caicos2

1 – Verizon Wireless2 – Digicel (Partner)

3 – America Movil (Partner in some countries)4 – Entel PCS (Partner)

For more information, see Verizon Wireless.

In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the country's largest mobile carrier after their merger with Alltel. 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 4 April 2000. However, Verizon Communications - the company formed when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged on 30 June 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, at the time a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth (both now part of AT&T), ultimately outbid Vodafone and took control of AT&T Wireless (the combined wireless carrier

is now AT&T Mobility), 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[who?] this is to appease Vodafone, which uses GSM on its own networks.

On 11 May 2008, Vodafone sealed a trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS has access to the equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. This step will give the Vodafone brand access to a market of over 15 million people, currently divided among three companies: Telefonica Movistar, Claro, and Entel PCS.

History

Newbury: New Vodafone Headquarters. This HQ is situated in the north western section of the grid square and the picture was taken from the west side of the building. Most of this square is residential with some farmland and some commercial activity.

In 1980, Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, chairman of Racal Electronics plc's, the UK's largest maker of military radio technology, agreed a deal with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc to allow Racal to access some of GEC's tactical battlefield radio technology. Briefing the head of Racal's military radio division Gerry Whent to drive the company into commercial mobile radio, Whent visited GE's factory in Virginia, USA in 1980.[11]

In 1982, Racal's newly formed subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd under CEO Whent, won one of two UK cellular telephone network licences; the other going to British Telecom[12][13] The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, Millicom with 15% and Hambros Technology Trust 5% respectively. Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985.[14] Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985.[13] On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for GB£110 million.[15]

Under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders (the mobile unit was being valued at the same amount as the whole Racal group), 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.[16] On 16 September 1991, Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group.[17]

In July 1996, Vodafone acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million.[18] 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.[19] In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores.[20]

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.[21] To approve the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk.[22] The acquisition gave Vodafone a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.

On 21 September 1999, Vodafone agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon Wireless.[23] 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 purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator.[24] 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.[25] 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.[25] 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

A map showing Vodafone Global Enterprise' footprint.   Vodafone Operating Countries  Vodafone's partners and affiliates

In 2001, the Company acquired Eircell, the largest wireless communications company in the Republic of Ireland, from eircom. Eircell was subsequently rebranded as Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone 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.)

[edit] Networks

[edit] Europe

Networks in EuropeMajority-

ownedMinority-

ownedNo Ownership

Albania France Austria Belgium

Czech Republic Poland BulgariaChannel Islands

Germany Croatia CyprusGreece Denmark Estonia

Hungary Finland Faroe IslandsIreland Iceland LatviaItaly Lithuania Luxembourg

MaltaRep. of

MacedoniaNorway

Netherlands Russia SerbiaSlovenia SwedenPortugal Switzerland UkraineRomania

SpainTurkey

UK

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, Omnitel (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 1.5 million 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 US$4.5 billion.[26] 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. On 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.

Vodafone HQ in Ireland at Central Park, Leopardstown Rd.

On 12 March 2006, former chief, Sir Christopher Gent, who was appointed the honorary post Chairman for Life in 2003, quit following rumours of boardroom rifts.[citation needed] In April 2006, the Company announced that it had 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 then 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,[27] 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, signalling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the information and communication technologies (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. In addition, Vodafone Turkey also gives service in Northern Cyprus. 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.[28] 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.[29] On 1 August 2007, Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

Vodafone Lion of Munich's Löwenparade

At the end of 2007, Vodafone Germany was ranked 6th in Europe by subscriber numbers, whilst its Italian operation was listed as 10th. Vodafone UK was ranked 13th, whilst Spain was listed in 16th place.[30]

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 the Republic of Macedonia. In May 2008, Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as Vodafone Faroe Islands.

On 30 October 2008, the company announced a strategic, non-equity partnership with Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group of

Russia. The agreement adds Russia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to the group footprint.[31]

On 20 March 2009, it was announced that the group's Luxembourg partner has been changed to Tango: the agreement with LuxGSM was not renewed in favour of Tango, the Luxembourg unit of another partner network, Belgacom of Belgium.[32]

On December 2009, Vodafone Spain created a fake entry on Wikipedia to promote a mobile phone plan called "Feliz Borabó".[33]

[edit] Asia-Pacific

Networks in Asia-PacificMajority-owned Minority-owned No Ownership

Australia China mainland Afghanistan ArmeniaIndia Fiji Azerbaijan Hong Kong

New Zealand Japan MalaysiaSamoa Singapore

Sri Lanka TaiwanThailand Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

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.

The Vodafone building on Fanshawe Street, corner Halsey street, looking northeast, Auckland City, New Zealand.

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.[34]

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 internet

service provider, 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 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. What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and Vodafone are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji recently[when?] launched, and Vodafone owns a minority (49%) stake in Vodafone Fiji.

On 10 February 2008, Vodafone announced the launching of M-Paisa mobile money transfer service on Roshan's (Afghanistan's largest GSM operator) network: Afghanistan was added to the Vodafone footprint.

On 5 September 2008, Vodafone purchased Australia's largest bricks and mortar mobile phone retailer Crazy John's adding 115 retail stores to its local operations.[35]

On 9 February 2009, Vodafone announced a merger with 3/Hutchison via a joint venture company VHA Pty Ltd, which

would offer products under the Vodafone brand. dtac in Thailand is signed as a partner network of the Group on 25 March 2009.

On 19 June 2009, Vodafone-Hutchison Australia (VHA) announced the end of its outsourcing of retail operations. VHA committed to buying back and managing its entire retail operation, including 208 Vodafone-branded retail outlets Australia-wide. This project was slated to be completed by 1 September 2009.

On 31 August 2009, Vodafone enabled an extended 900mhz 3G UMTS network which functions outside their 2100mhz 3G network, boosting Vodafone's 3G population coverage from around 8% to around 94% on dual-band 900/2100mhz 3G UMTS devices.

Nar Mobile in Azerbaijan was signed as a Partner Network on 22 July 2009, while Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan was signed on 12 November 2009.

[edit] Africa and the Middle East

Networks in the Middle East and Africa

Majority-ownedMinority-

ownedNo Ownership

DR Congo1 Egypt Kenya KuwaitGhana Lesotho1 Bahrain

Mozambique1 Qatar2 LibyaTanzania1 South Africa1 UAE

1Majority stakes held through majority-owned Vodacom Group2Effective ownership is not majority, but full control exercised by

the group.Egypt

In November 1998, Vodafone Egypt network went live under the name ClickGSM.

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.

On 28 January 2011, Vodafone complied with Egyptian government instructions to suspend Internet service "in selected areas" during a period of anti-Mubarak protests. The company issued a statement that "Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it."[36][37]

Vodafone also received public and media criticism for allowing the authorities to send mass pro-government messages via SMS over their network during the protests. One such message requested that "honest and loyal men" should "confront the traitors and criminals". Vodafone later issued a statement asserting that they had no choice but to allow the messages to be broadcast, and that they had complained to the Egyptian authorities about the practice.[38]

Kuwait

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.

South Africa (Vodacom)

On 3 November 2004, the Company announced 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. Vodafone now owns 65% of Vodacom after purchasing a 15% stake from Telkom.[39]

On 9 October 2008, the company offered to acquire an additional 15 per cent stake in Vodacom group from Telkom. The finalised details of the agreement were announced on 6 November 2008. The agreement called for Telkom to sell 15 per cent of its 50 per cent stake in Vodacom to the group, and demerge the other 35 per cent to its shareholder. Meanwhile, Vodafone has agreed to make Vodacom its exclusive sub-Saharan Africa investment vehicle, as well as continuing to maintain the visibility of the Vodacom brand. The transaction is closed in May/June 2009.

On 18 May 2009, Vodacom entered the JSE Limited stock exchange in South Africa after Vodafone increased its stake by 15% to 65% to take a majority holding, despite disputes by local trade unions.

Ghana

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 won the second fixed-line licence in Qatar on 15 September 2008.

On 15 April 2009, Ghana Telecom, along with its mobile subsidiary onetouch, was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana.

U.A.E.

On 28 January 2009, the group announced a partner network agreement with Du, the second-largest operator of the United Arab Emirates. The agreement involved co-operation on international clients, handset procurement, mobile broadband etc.

Libya

On 24 February 2010, the group signed a partner network agreement with the second-largest operator in Libya, al Madar.

[edit] The Americas

Networks in the AmericasMinority-

ownedNo Ownership

USA1 Anguilla2 Antigua & Barbuda2 Aruba2 Barbados2

Bermuda2 Bonaire2 Canada3 Cayman Islands2

Chile4 Curaçao2 Dominica2 French West Indies2

Grenada2 Guyana2 Haiti2 Honduras2

Jamaica2 Panama2 St. Kitts & Nevis2 St. Lucia2

St. Vincent & the Grenadines2

Trinidad & Tobago2

Turk & Caicos2

1 – Verizon Wireless2 – Digicel (Partner)

3 – America Movil (Partner in some countries)4 – Entel PCS (Partner)

For more information, see Verizon Wireless.

In the United States, Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the country's largest mobile carrier after their merger with Alltel. 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 4 April 2000. However, Verizon Communications - the company formed when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged on 30 June 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, at the time a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth (both now part of AT&T), ultimately outbid Vodafone and took control of AT&T Wireless (the combined wireless carrier

is now AT&T Mobility), 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[who?] this is to appease Vodafone, which uses GSM on its own networks.

On 11 May 2008, Vodafone sealed a trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS has access to the equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. This step will give the Vodafone brand access to a market of over 15 million people, currently divided among three companies: Telefonica Movistar, Claro, and Entel PCS.

Board Members

John Buchanan - Deputy Chairman

Andy Halford - Chief Financial Officer

Alan Jebson

Nick Land

Anne Lauvergeon

Simon Murray

Luc Vandevelde

Tony Watson

Philip Yea

Sir John Bond

Andy Halford

Anthony Watson

★ Chairman :- Sir john Bond

Sir John Bond became Chairman of Vodafone Group Plc on 25 July 2006 having previously served as a Non-Executive Director.The Deputy Chairman, John Buchanan, is the nominated seniorIndependent director and his role includes being available for approach or representation by directors or significant shareholders who may feel inhibited from raising issues with the Chairman. He

is also responsible for conducting an annual review of the performance of the Chairman and, in the event it should be necessary, convening an annual meeting of the non-executive directors. The Company considers all it’s present non-executive directors to befully independent. Read the terms of appointment for non-executive directors. The executive directors are Vittorio Colao (Chief Executive) and Andy Halford.

★ Chief Executive :- Vittorio colao

Vittorio Colao became Chief Executive of Vodafone Group Plc on 29 July 2008, having previously served as a Board Director.

★ Chief financial officer :- Andy Halford

Andy Halford became the Chief Financial Officer of the Company in July 2005. He joined Vodafone in 1999 as Financial Director for Vodafone Limited, the UK operating company, and in 2001, he became Financial Director for Vodafone's Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa Region. In 2002, he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Verizon Wireless in the US. Prior to joining Vodafone he was Group Finance Director at East Midlands Electricity Plc.

What we do :-

Mobile is always at the heart of what we do, but now we are moving intointegratedmobile and PC communication services.We are doing that in two ways – wirelessly through 3G and HSDPA (High-Speed Download Packet Access), but also using fixed line broadband services like DSL(Digital Subscriber Line).Our customers benefit from a complete Vodafone experience in and out of their homes and offices.They are notified about email with our We offer a suite of products that, starting with voice calls.Vodafone Zuhause in Germany And Vodafone Casa in Italy, provide our customers with an easy-to-use mobile-se combined with low-cost fixed line telephony and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) broadband. We have extended our reach into the office by delivering richer business applications and integrated fixed and mobile services, such as higher speed internet access.With developments in technology we can provide integrated mobile and PC offerings to give our customers a consistent experience whether they are at home.

★ Products and Services :-

• Voice • Data • Fixed and other services • Devices

★ Technology :-

• How do mobiles work? • Mobile evolution • Network infrastructure • Privacy Policy • Terms & Conditions Data Service

We offer a number of products and services to enhance our customers’ access to data services, including Vodafone live! for consumers as well as a suite of products for business users such as Vodafone Mobile Connect data cards and internet-based and corporate email solutions. Vodafone live! – Internet on Your Mobile “Internet on your Mobile” offers easy to use and secure browsing, including Google search, an unlimited browsing tariff and access to some of the most popular online services.You can use your mobile to access and update your social networking profiles, view and upload YouTube videos, buy and sell items on eBay, and check locations on Google Maps. You can also chat to friends easily with Yahoo! and MSN instant messaging using an easy to use dedicated interface. Using the new Vodafone live! mobile and PC music player you can search for music, artist pages and previews from a catalogue of more than 750,000 songs.

Music from some of the world’s greatest artists is available, with music secured from agreements with major record labels such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI, Universal Music, Warner Music, as well as independent music labels. Mobile TV offers an average of 20 channels from both local and international broadcasters. Vodafone has local agreements with broadcasters, such as the BBC, ZDF, RAI, Pro-Sieben, Channel 4 and RTL, as well as international broadcasts from HBO, Fox, NBC Universal, Warner Brothers, UEFA Champions League, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and MTV, ensuring diverse and relevant mobile content. Vodafone Mobile Connect .

► Quick stats

*2.7 million customers Built-in 3G broadband on 44 laptop models7.2 Mbps down and 2.1Mbps up using Vodafone Mobile Connect card with HSPA technology Vodafone Mobile Connect enables you to access the internet on your laptop or PC via Vodafone Mobile Connect data cards or Vodafone Mobile Connect USB modems. Business customers can access services such as email, corporate applications and company intranets using the service.Vodafone Mobile Connect card. You can enjoy built-in 3G broadband from Vodafone across 44 laptop models, including Vodafone’s partners Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo. Everything you need to make an internet connection from your computer using a mobile network is installed and configured, allowing you to work on the move. The Vodafone Mobile Connect card with 3G broadband offers enhanced speeds which can be up to 7.2 Mbps downlink and up to 2.0 Mbps uplink by utilising HSPA technology. Vodafone Mobile Connect USB modems:

There are a range of Vodafone Mobile Connect USB modems with exclusive designs. The USB modems are “plug and play”

compatible, allowing for a fast set up and making the device easy to use. Vodafone Group Plc (hereinafter referred to as "Vodafone" "us" "we" or "our") is committed to respecting your privacy and to complying with applicable data protection and privacy laws. You can visit www.vodafone.com ("Site") without disclosing any personally identifiable information about yourself. We have provided this Privacy Policy Statement to help you understand how we collect, use and protect your information when you visit the Site. We wish to help you make informed decisions, so please take a few moments to read the sections below and learn how we may use your personal information. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy Statement "Vodafone Group" means Vodafone Group Plc and any company or other entity in which Vodafone Group Plc owns (directly or indirectly) more than 15% of the issued share capital.You should read this notice in conjunction with the Terms and Conditions of use for the Site. Personal Information Collection.

We Endeavour to collect and use your personal information only with your knowledge and consent and typically when you use services, make customer enquiries, register for information or other services, or when you respond to communications from us (such as questionnaires or surveys). The type of personal information we may collect could include, for example, your name and postal address, date of birth, gender, telephone and fax numbers, email address, and lifestyle and other information collected on registration or through surveys. If you choose to provide us with personal information it will be used in support of the intended purposes stated at the time at which it was collected, and subject to any preferences indicated to you. You acknowledge that by providing data to us, you consent to the processing of your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy Statement. Access to your InformationYou can write to us at any time to obtain details of the personal information we may hold about you.

*Term & conditions :-

Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully. These are the general Terms and Conditions governing your access and use of this website ("Site"). If you do not agree with them, you should not proceed any further on the Site. By continuing to use the Site and/or any of the services shown on the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

1. Use of content :-

► The services that we are providing to you via the Site consist of the Content and the Functionalities available on the Site or otherwise provided to you as a result of your use of the Site ("Services").►You acknowledge and agree that you are only permitted to use the Site and the Services as expressly set out in these Terms and Conditions or on the Site.►You agree that the Site and the Services are for your own personal use only on asingle computer or device.

2. Your Obligations :-

You warrant that you will only use the Site and the Services in accordance with these Terms and Conditions and in an appropriate and lawful manner and by way of example and not as a limitation, that you shall not (and shall not authorise or permit any other party to) use the Site and/or the Services to advertise or offer to sell any goods or services for any commercial purpose without Vodafone's written consent. 3. Your Information :-

Vodafone's usage of your personal information is governed by the Vodafone Group's Privacy Policy Statement (link to privacy policy

at the foot of this page), which forms part of these Terms and Conditions. 4. Proprietary rights :-

All Trade Marks used on the site and/or the Services are the trade marks of Vodafone or one of the Vodafone Group companies. You shall only make fair use of the Trade Marks and will not use the Trade Marks, whether design or word marks: (1) as or as part of your own trade marks; (2) in a manner which is likely to cause confusion; (3) to identify products to which they do not relate; (4) to imply endorsement or otherwise of products or services to which they do not relate; or (5) in any manner which does or may cause damage to the reputationof Vodafone or the Trade Marks.

5. Costs :-

Use of the Site is currently free. However, Vodafone reserves the right to charge for access to part or all of the Site in the future, subject to giving you clear notice when entering any part to which charges apply. Some services may be chargeable as indicated on the Site and in any accompanying terms and conditions.

6. Variation :-

► Vodafone reserves the right to modify the Site and/or the Services or suspend or terminate the Site and/or the Services or access to part or all of them at any time.

► Vodafone reserves the right to revise these Terms and Conditions at any time. Such variations shall become effective two weeks after being posted on the Site. By continuing to use the Site you will be deemed to have accepted the varied Terms and Conditions.

7. Monitoring/recording of communications :-

Monitoring or recording of your calls, emails, text messages or other communications may take place in accordance with the law, and in particular for Vodafone's business purposes, such as for quality control and training, to prevent unauthorised use of Vodafone's telecommunication systems and to ensure effective systems operation and in order to prevent or detect crime.

8. Termination :-

► Vodafone may elect to suspend, vary or terminate the Services and the Site immediately and without prior notice at any time for repair or maintenance work or in order to upgrade or update the Site and the Services or for any other reason whatsoever.

► Vodafone may elect to terminate the Services or your access to the Site forthwith on breach of any of these Terms and Conditions by you, or if Vodafone ceases to offer the Site and the Services for any reason whatsoever. 9. Definitions :-

► "Content" :- means all data, information, material and content, including but not limited to text, pictures, photographs, software, video, music, sound and graphics .

► "Services" :-

has the meaning given to it in Clause 1.1 .

► "Functionalities" :- means the services offered on or via the Site;

► "Terms and Conditions" :- means the contract between Vodafone and you incorporating these terms and conditions .

► "Trade Marks" :- means the word or mark "Vodafone", however represented, including stylized representations all associated logos and symbols and combinations of the foregoing with another word or mark .

► "Vodafone" :- means Vodafone Group Plc, whose registered office is at Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, RG14 2FN, England and may also be referred to as "we" or "us" in these Terms and Conditions .

► "Vodafone Group" :- means Vodafone Group Plc and any company or other entity in which Vodafone Group Plc owns (directly or indirectly) more than 15% of the issued share capital .

IPR statement on next generation mobile Network technologies

Vodafone has a long history of active engagement in standards that lay the foundation of our industry. As such, we continue to be conscious of the fact it is necessary to incorporate and encourage contribution of IPR into standards to ensure continued innovation, whilst also critical in terms of the viability of standards-based products. Currently, the members of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) are standardizing a next generation mobile radio technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE).In parallel, NGMN Ltd. is actively consolidating requirements on candidate next generation mobile technologies. As part of this effort, Vodafone is closely working with its industry partners creating awareness and transparency about IPR and the impact of IPR licensing on future products and services. Vodafone welcomes the industry transition towards full, open disclosure of IPR royalty expectations from all industry partners.

In support of this openness Vodafone makes the following statement :-

Vodafone anticipates next generation mobile technology to provide data connectivity for a much wider range of devices than just mobile phones and notebooks. All sorts of consumer electronic devices, and also IT, domestic appliances, cars, containers etc. will become connected as part of their key capabilities.WhileVodafone respects that holders of IPR built into standards deserve a fair compensation for their R&D efforts, this reward needs to support the success of the technology in an increasingly competitive market. This leads us to believe that the IPR licence structure for any next generation mobile technology should be based on the component price of the radio module built in or attached to devices.

* Differences from NYSE corporate governance practices

► Independence :- The NYSE rules require that a majority of the Board must be comprised of independent directors and the rules include detailed tests that US companies must use for determining independence. The Combined Code requires a company's board ofdirectors to assess and make a determination as to the independence of its directors. While the Board does not explicitly take into consideration the NYSE's detailed tests, it has carried out an assessment based on the requirements of the Combined Code and has determined in its judgement that all of the non-executive directors are independent within those requirements. As at the date of this Annual Report, the Board comprised the Chairman, four executive directors and eleven non-executive directors.

Under NYSE rules, US companies are required to have a nominating and corporate governance committee and a compensation committee , each composed entirely of -independent directors with a written charter that addresses the Committees'purpose and responsibilities.The Company's

Nominations and Governance Committee and Remuneration Committee have terms of reference and composition that comply with the Combined Code requirements. The Nominations and Governance Committee is chaired by the Chairman of the Board, and its other members are non-executive directors of the Company and the Chief Executive.The Remuneration Committee is composed entirely of non-executive directors whom the Board has determined to be independent. The Company's Audit Committee is composed entirely of non-executive directors whom the Board has determined to be independent and who meet the requirements of Rule 10A-3 of the Securities Exchange Act. The Company considers that the terms of reference of these committees, which are available on its website are generally responsive to the relevant NYSE rules but may not address all aspects of these rules. Corporate governance guidelines Under NYSE rules, US companies must adopt and disclose corporate governance guidelines. Vodafone has posted its statement of compliance with the Combined Code on its website. The Company also has adopted a Group Governance Manual which provides the first level of the framework within which its businesses operate. The manual is a reference for Chief Executives and their teams and applies to all directors and employees. The Company considers that its corporate governance guidelines are generally responsive to, but may not address all aspects of, the relevant NYSE rules.

*Statement of corporate governance policy

The Board of directors of the Company is committed to high standards of corporate governance, which it considers are critical to business integrity and to maintaining investors' trust in the Company. The Group expects all its directors and employees to act with honesty, integrity and fairness. The Group will strive to act in accordance with the laws and customs of the countries in which it operates; adopt proper standards of business practice and

procedure; operate with integrity; and observe and respect the culture of every country in which it does business. The Combined Code The Company's ordinary shares are listed in the United Kingdom on the London Stock Exchange. As such, the Company is required to make a disclosure statement concerning its application of the principles of and compliance with the provisions of the revised Combined Code on corporate governance ( the -"Combined Code"). For the year ended 31 March 2006, the Board confirms that the Company has been in compliance with the provisions of section 1 of the Combined Code. The disclosures provided below are nevertheless intended to provide an explanation of the Company's corporate governance policies andpractices. US listing requirements the Company's ADSs are listed on the NYSE and the Company is, therefore, subject to the rules of the NYSE as well as US securities laws and the rules of the SEC. The NYSE requires US companies listed on the exchange to comply with the NYSE's corporate governance rules but foreign private issuers, such as the Company, are exempt from most of those rules. However, pursuant to NYSE Rule 303A.11, the Company is required to disclose a summary of any significant ways in which the corporate governance practices it follows differ from those required by the NYSE for US companies. A summary of such differences is set out below. The Company has established a Disclosure Committee with responsibility for reviewing and approving controls and procedures over the public disclosure of financial and related information, and other procedures necessary to enable the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer to provide their Certifications of the Annual Report on Form 20-F that is filed with the SEC. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (US) requires the Company to annually assess and make public statements about the quality and effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting. As a non-US company, Vodafone is first required to report on its compliance with section 404 for the year ended 31 March 2007. Management's report must describe conclusions about the effectiveness of the Company's internal

control over financial reporting based on management's evaluation as of the end of the Company's most recent fiscal year. The Company has established a Steering Committee to provide strategic direction to the Company's section 404 compliance efforts and a Programme Management Office which monitors progress and provides detailed guidance to the compliance teams that have been set up in the Group's subsidiaries and central functions. The Company's Audit Committee also plays an active role in monitoring these efforts. The Audit Committee receives progress updates at each of its meetings as well as a bi-annual status presentation from the Programme Management Office. The Company's external auditors have been consulted

throughout the project and will continue to be involved as the Company finalises its review . The Company has reviewed the structure and operation of its "entity level" control environment: the overarching structure of review and monitoring essential to the management of its business. Each of the Company's subsidiaries and central functions has ensured that the relevant processes and controls are documented to appropriate standards, taking into account the guidance provided by the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's Auditing Standard No. 2 and subsequent SEC Staff Questions and Answers related to the standard. The approach taken has been to identify the key financial reporting processes so that, in aggregate, the Company has reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of its financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements. The Company is making satisfactory progress on the work required to enable it to report on its compliance with section 404 at 31 March 2007. The Company has also adopted a corporate Code of Ethics for senior executive, financial and accounting officers, separate from and additional to its Business Principles, described below. Information about changes in directors' shareholdings can be found in the Regulatory News (RNS) feed from the London Stock Exchange

*PRODUCT PROFILE

“ BASIC SERVICES ”

★ Clip★ Call Hold/call waiting★ Call conference★ Clir★ Itemised Bill (Post Paid)★ SMS ★ Call Barring (CBARR) (Post Paid )

► CALLER LINE IDENTIFICATION PRESENTATION (CLIP) :- Clip identifies the caller by displaying the number of the caller on the handset. This allows you the benefit of accepting or

rejecting the call; although, at times caller Line Identification may not appear due to technical problems in the originating network.

► CALL HOLD/ CALL WAIT :- This feature allows you to receive or make another call, while you are already busy with a call, without disconnecting it . You can receive or make a second call, by putting the first call on hold. You billed for both the calls. You can activate call waiting by using the menu of your cell phone

►CALL CONFERENCE (CC) :- This feature allows you to have a teleconference with up to five people at the same time, from wherever you are. You can conference with either cellular or landline phones, including STD and ISD calls. To make a conference call simply make your first call. Then put the first call on hold and dial the next number. To conference, scroll through the handset menu and select the conference feature. Now your call are connected . to invite another person follow the same steps again

Note:► Call conference is a handset dependent feature. You are charged for the time on hold and conference.► The originator of the calls will be charged for all the calls initiated by him.To use the facility you need to activate the “call waiting” feature on your handset.

► CALLER LINE IDENTIFICATION RESTRICTION (CLIR) :- Now, with CLIR you can restrict your cellular phone number from being displayed on the receiver’s cellular phone. This

means, you can maintain complete confidentiality of your number. This feature might not function across operator networks, but will definitely restrict caller ID when called within the same cellular operator network’s Mobile numbers.

► ITEMISED BILLING:- An itemized bill gives you the details of all calls made and received, and of all the other facilities you availed of, on your mobile number during a month. It also carries details of the number called/ received, time and date of the call, duration and the amount charged.

►SHORT MESSAGING SERVICE :- This feature allows you to send and receive messages to and from, respectively; almost all national and international cellular operators. SMS allows you access to services lime receiving stock quotes, horoscopes, Jokes messages, email, news and many others. It comes as an in built feature to all Vodafone subscribers. Vodafone offers an array of Services that help you manage your calls better. From caller Identification to call waiting, from call divert to call conference Vodafone redefines convenience. Most of these features are optional and can be availed of on request and carry a nominal subscription charge. To activate any feature call our customers care or visit any Vodafone Showroom.

► CALL DIVERT (CD) :- With call Divert, you can divert an incoming call to another cell phone (be it Vodafone or Airtel/ Essar or BSNL cellular Phone ) or even a landline number (within Andhra Pradesh local dialing list). You can divert your calls.

► VALUE ADDED SERVICES :- Just when you thought you had the cake, we made it possible for you to eat it too. Introducing THE VODAFONE Value Added Services, a vibrant bouquet of "little conveniences" "small pleasures" "bits of happiness" "dollops of infotainment" and all those "itsy bitsy" wants of yours that together make up THE BIG SMILING

► PICTURE :- SMS based services to Voice based ones, the vodafone range cuts across all modes of communication to ensure the BEST VALUE for your money. So be it downloading the latest ring tones or sharing the freshest of blonde jokes, be it checking the status of your cousin's train arrival time or arranging a pick up for your boss's delayed flight, vodafone hands you the power to do it all.

►SMS SERVICES :- ● vodafone Buzz - Subscription Services - ● SMS Short Code ● Text Messaging ● Dynamic Voice Mail Service► GPRS/EDGE :- ● vodafone Buzz - Subscription Services –4560456 ● SMS Short Code ● Text Messaging ● Dynamic Voice Mail Service

VOICE ● Say vodafone -456 ● Ganesha Speaks - 181 ● Back ground Music

★ VODAFONE GPRS – THE INTERNET ON THE MOVE VODAFONE :- Vodafone’s 3G compatible network supports general Packet radio service (GPRS) and EDGE, which allows you to access internet websites and information portals on your mobile, making it possible to stay informed and remain truly connected in this dynamically changing and competitive environment. Gone are the days when connecting to a website from the mobile took as long as 2 – 3 minutes. GPRS compatible handsets ensure that as a user, you are “ always on”. There is no need for a dial up connection or any ISP connection. Now you can now carry the world Wide Web in their pocket – the vodafone world. Read email, get stock quotes, check the weather, read thelatest news and even chat with friends and “Buddies” on Idea Network, yahoo, MSN and ICQ while on the move. One of the mind – blowing applications on GPRS/EDGE inmultimedia Messaging Service (MMS).Vodafone is among the pioneers in the country to provide MMS. This latest innovation in the area of mobile communication provides you the ability to communication provides you the ability to communicate not just in voice or text but also in full color images. Now you can send your emotions to your near and dear ones; with photographs, attach voice clips and append text too. Just in case the receiver does not have on MMS handset, even then the photographs can be accessed from our website http.//www.vodafone co.in// for your convenience, we have also created a library of photo album and voice clips, from where you can choose and send photographs. Further, you can also compose your own MMS message on the above – mentioned website and send it across to a cellular phone or any e-mail ID. With the introduction of GPRS on its networks, vodafone also supports the use of the GPRS phone as a modem, providing busy lap top armed executives, like most of you; the opportunity to log in wirelessly while “ on the go” . thus now you can surf the Internet using our GPRS connectivity with your computer.

*ADVANTAGE OF VODAFONE GPRS

● High speed and “ always on “ internet on the move. ● Internet access on prepaid also. ● Liberation from the shackles of dial - up or ISP connection. ● Receive voice calls or SMS even while logged on to GPRS. Revolutionary concept of charging - only for what you send and receive Offers MMS, a platform to communicate not just in voice or text but also in full color images.

Vodafone market share

Subsidiaries

Networks where Vodafone Group owns a majority holding. These networks are branded Vodafone.

Country

Network Name (former)

Ownership

Customers1

Market

ShareRank

Local WebsiteMain Local Competitor(

s)

Europe

AlbaniaVodafone

99.9% 1,127,000 48% 2/4 www.vodafone.alAMC, Eagle mobile, Plus

Czech Republic

Vodafone (Oskar)

100% 2,658,00020.14% [2]

3/4 www.vodafone.czO2, T-Mobile, U:fon

GermanyVodafone (D2)

100% 33,920,00034.10% [3]

2/4 www.vodafone.deT-Mobile, E-Plus, O2

GreeceVodafone (Panafon)

99.9% 5,492,00030.19%

2/3 www.vodafone.grCosmote, Wind-Q

Hungary

Vodafone (AirTouch - Primatel)

100% 2,304,00021.04% [4]

3/3 www.vodafone.huT-Mobile, Pannon

Ireland Vodafone (Eircell)

100% 2,265,000 43.4% [5]

1/4 www.vodafone.ie O2, Meteor, 3, eircom

Mobile, Tesco Mobile

ItalyVodafone (Omnitel)

76.86% 22,791,00033.7% [6]

2/4 www.vodafone.it TIM, Wind, 3

MaltaVodafone (Telecell)

100% 201,000 52% 1/2www.vodafone.com.mt

GO mobile

Netherlands

Vodafone (Libertel)

99.9% 4,038,00021.8% [7]

3/3 www.vodafone.nlKPN, T-Mobile

Northern Cyprus

KKTC Telsim2 100% 104,000

27.22% [8]

2/2www.kktctelsim.com

KKTCell

PortugalVodafone (Telecel)

100% 5,111,000 37.2% 2/3 www.vodafone.ptTMN, Optimus

RomaniaVodafone (Connex)

100% 8,808,00039% [9]

2/6 www.vodafone.ro

Orange, Cosmote, Digi.Mobil, Zapp Mobile, Romtelecom

SpainVodafone (Airtel)

100% 15,810,00031.2% [10]

2/4 www.vodafone.esmovistar, Orange, Yoigo

TurkeyVodafone

100% 16,116,00026% [11]

2/3www.vodafone.com.tr

Turkcell, Avea

United Kingdom

Vodafone

100% 18,447,00025.3% [12]

2/5www.vodafone.co.uk

O2, T-Mobile, Virgin Media (Mobile), 3, Orange

Asia-Pacific

AustraliaVodafone (VHA)

50%7,580,000 [13]

27% [14]

3/3www.vodafone.com.au

Telstra, Optus

FijiVodafone

49% 186,000 100% 1/2www.vodafone.com.fj

Digicel

IndiaVodafone (Hutch)

67%130,920,732

23.59% [15]

3/14 www.vodafone.in

AirTel, BSNL Mobile, Reliance, MTNL, Idea, Aircel, Tata DoCoMo, Uninor

New Zealand

Vodafone (BellSouth)

100% 2,309,00052.3% [16]

1/2www.vodafone.co.nz

Telecom, TelstraClear, 2degrees

Middle East and AfricaDR Congo Vodaco 25.5%3 4 49% 1/? www.vodacom.cd Celtel, Tigo

m

EgyptVodafone (Click GSM)

55% 13,333,00044.3% [17]

2/3www.vodafone.com.eg

Mobinil, Etisalat

Ghana

Vodafone (Ghana Telecom, onetouch)

70% 1,400,000 17% 3/6www.vodafone.com.gh

MTN, Tigo, Zain

LesothoVodacom

44.15%3 4 80% 1/2www.vodacom.co.ls

Econet Wireless

Mozambique

Vodacom

49%3 4 40% [18]

2/2 www.vm.co.mz mCel

QatarVodafone5 22.95% 353,580

22% [19]

2/2www.vodafone.com.qa

Qtel

South Africa

Vodacom

65% 16,521,00052.6% [20]

1/3www.vodacom.co.za

MTN, Cell C

TanzaniaVodacom

32.5%3 4 46%[21]

1/4www.vodacom.co.tz

Celtel, Tigo

1 The number of customers are presented on a controlled (fully consolidated) and jointly controlled (proportionately consolidated) basis in

accordance with Vodafone's current segments, as at 31 December 20072 Due to exclusive partnership agreements with CYTA that covers the entire island of Cyprus, Vodafone cannot market its services under the

Vodafone brand in northern Cyprus.3 Approximate percentage only. Stakes held through majority-owned Vodacom group4 Customer numbers for South Africa includes customers from DR Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania.5 Although not majority-owned by the group, Vodafone has full management control.

[edit] Affiliates

Networks where Vodafone Group owns a minority holding. Some of these networks offer Vodafone-branded products.

CountryNetwork Name (former)

Ownership

Proportionate

Customers1Market Share

RankLocal Website

Main Local Competitor(

s)

Europe

France SFR 43.9% 2 36% [22]

2/3 www.sfr.frOrange, Bouygues Télécom

Poland Plus 24.4%[1] 2,638,00032.3%[23]

2/4 www.plusgsm.plOrange, Play, Era

Asia PacificIndia Airtel 4.4% 2 23.4%[2

4]1/16 www.airtel.in BSNL

Mobile, Reliance, MTNL, Idea, Aircel, Tata

IndicomMiddle East and Africa

KenyaSafaricom

35% 3,698,000 81%[25] 1/3www.safaricom.co.ke

Celtel, Telkom Kenya

Americas

United States

Verizon Wireless

45% 29,568,00031.7% [26]

1/6www.verizonwireless.com

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile,

1 Proportionate customers as at 31 December 20072 Proportionate number of customers currently not available.

[edit] Partner Networks

Partner Networks are networks that co-operate with Vodafone. This arrangement does not involve any equity transactions. It allows the Vodafone brand to be extended to markets where the Vodafone does not own a local company. Products resulting from this agreement are marketed using dual brand formula, wherein the Vodafone is put after the local brand.

Country/Region/Territory

Network Name

(former)

Market

ShareRank

Local WebsiteMain Local

Competitor(s)

Europe

Austriamobilkom Austria

42.5% [27]

1/4 www.a1.netT-Mobile, One, 3

Belgium Proximus 48.7% 1/3 www.proximus.beBase, Mobistar

Bulgaria Mobiltel50% [28]

1/4 www.mtel.bgGloBul, Vivatel

Croatia VIPnet42.2% [29]

2/3 www.vipnet.hrT-Mobile, Tele2

Cyprus

Cytamobile-Vodafone (Cytamobile)

81% [30]

1/2www.cytamobile-vodafone.com

MTN

DenmarkTDC Mobil

41.4% 1/4 www.tdc.dkSonofon, Telia, 3

EstoniaElisa Oyj (Radiolinja)

?% 1/3 www.elisa.ee Tele2, EMT

Faroe Islands Vodafone (Kall)

30% 2/2 www.vodafone.foTelefonverk Føroyar Løgtings

Finland Elisa Oyj 30% 1/3 www.elisa.fi Sonera,

(Radiolinja) Finnet

GuernseyAirtel-Vodafone

?% ? www.airtel-vodafone.gg Wave, Sure

Iceland

Vodafone (Og Vodafone; Tal, Íslandssími)

38% 2/2 www.vodafone.isSíminn, TAL, HIVE

JerseyAirtel-Vodafone

?% ? www.airtel-vodafone.jeJersey Telecom, Sure

LatviaBitė Latvija

?% 3/3 www.bite.lvLMT GSM, Tele2

LithuaniaBitė Lietuva

21.6% [31]

3/3 www.bite.ltTele2, Omnitel

LuxembourgTango (Tele2Tango)

32% [32]

2/4 www.tango.luLuxGSM, VOXmobile

MacedoniaVIP Operator

10.7% [33]

3/3 www.vip.com.mkT-Mobile, Cosmofon

NorwayTDC (TDC Song)

?% ? www.tdc.noTelenor, NetCom

Russia MTS34% [34]

1/3 www.mts.ruVimpelcom, Megafon

SerbiaVip mobile

9.1% [35]

3/3 www.vipmobile.rs mt:s, Telenor

Slovenia Si.mobil27.7% [36]

2/4 www.simobil.siMobitel, Tušmobil

Sweden TDC 3/4 www.tdc.seTelia, Tele2, 3

Switzerland Swisscom 62% 1/3 www.swisscom-mobile.chOrange, sunrise, Tele2

Ukraine MTS33% [37]

2/5 www.mts.com.uaVimpelcom, Kyivstar

Asia-Pacific

Afghanistan Roshan34.8% [38]

1/4 www.roshan.af

MTN, Afghan Wireless, Etisalat

ArmeniaVivacell-MTS

79% [39]

1/2 www.mts.am Vimpelcom

AzerbaijanAzerfon-Vodafone

3/3 www.azerfon-vodafone.comAzercell, Bakcell

Hong Kong SmarTone-Vodafone

11% [40]

5/5 www.smartone-vodafone.com

3, Peoples, CSL, New World,

(SmarTone) PCCW

JapanSoftbank (Vodafone, J-Phone)

17.71% [41]

3/4 mb.softbank.jpNTT DoCoMo, KDDI

Malaysia Celcom31% [42]

2/3 www.celcom.com.myMaxis Communications, Digi

SamoaDigicel (Telecom Samoa)

78.57% [43]

1/2 www.digicelsamoa.comSamoatel mobile

Singapore M128.3% [44]

3/3 www.m1.com.sgSingTel, StarHub

Sri Lanka Dialog53% [45]

1/4 www.dialog.lkAirtel, Etisalat, Mobitel

TaiwanChunghwa Telecom

1/4 www.cht.com.twTaiwan Mobile, FarEastone

Thailand dtac30% [46]

2/4 www.dtac.co.th AIS,TRUE

Turkmenistan MTS87% [47]

1/? www.mts.tm

Uzbekistan MTS46% [48]

1/? www.mts.uz

Middle East and Africa

BahrainZain (MTC-Vodafone)

40% [49]

2/2 www.bh.zain.com Batelco

Libya al Madar 2/2 www.almadar.ly

UAE du26% [50]

2/2 www.du.ae Etisalat

Americas

Anguilla Digicel ? ?/? www.digicelanguilla.comCable & Wireless

Antigua and Barbuda Digicel ? ?www.digicelantiguaandbarbuda.com

Cable & Wireless, APUA

Aruba Digicel ? ?/? www.digicelaruba.com SETAR GSM

Barbados Digicel ? ? www.digicelbarbados.comCable & Wireless

Bermuda Digicel ? ? www.digicelbermuda.com M3 WirelessBonaire Digicel ?% ?/? www.digicelbonaire.com

Cayman Islands Digicel ?% ?/? www.digicel.kyCable & Wireless

ChileEntel PCS

38.8% [51]

2/4 www.entelpcs.clmovistar, Claro

Curaçao Digicel ?% ?/? www.digicelcuracao.com

(Curaçao Telecom)

Dominica Digicel ? ? www.digiceldominica.comCable & Wireless

French Guiana Digicel (Bouygues Télécom)

? ? www.digicel.fr Orange SAGuadeloupeMartinique

Grenada Digicel ? ? www.digicelgrenada.comCable & Wireless

Guyana Digicel (U Mobile)

? ? www.digicelguyana.com GT&T

Haiti Digicel65% [52]

1/? www.digicelhaiti.com Voila

Honduras Digicel ? ? www.digicel.hn

Jamaica Digicel75% [53]

1/3 www.digiceljamaica.combmobile, Miphone

Panama Digicel ? ? www.digicelpanama.com

St Kitts and Nevis Digicel ? ?www.digicelstkittsandnevis.com

Cable & Wireless

St Lucia Digicel ? ? www.digicelstlucia.comCable & Wireless

St Vincent and the Grenadines

Digicel ? ? www.digicelsvg.comCable & Wireless

Trinidad and Tobago Digicel ? ? www.digiceltt.com TSTT

Turks and Caicos Digicel ?% ?/? www.digiceltci.comCable & Wireless

► MARKETING RESEARCH - AN INTRODUCTION Marketing basically consist of spotting the need of customers and meeting them in the best possible manner. Marketing Research plays key role in this process. It helps the firm acquire a better understanding of the consumer, the competition & The marketing environment. It also aids the formulation of marketing Mix.Today carrying out research relating to customers products and market requires specialized skills sophisticated techniques

► DEFINITION OF MARKETING RESEARCH:- “Marketing research is the systematic gathering recording and analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services. “ “ AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION”.

*CLASSIFICATION OF MARKETING RESEARCH PROBLEM:- The various marketing research problem can be classified based on the subject matter of research as shown below:-1. Research on Product2. Research on Market3. Research on consumer4. Research on advertisement and Promotion5. Research on distribution6. Research on Price7. Research on competition8. Research on Sales method

Research on Products includes studies on the competitive position of a product /brand : the level of consumer acceptance of a products/ brands etc. consumer research includes. Studies on consumer behavior. Buyer Motives consumer loyalty Consumer resistance etc. Research on market includes market share analysis demand analysis determining market characteristics, market segmentation studies . Analysis of market territories etc. Research on distribution includes studies on distribution policies trans -portation, warehousing etc. Research on advertisement and promotion includes studies on advertising effectiveness, studies on media and their relative effectiveness and cost- benefits of sales promotion etc.

*MAIN STEP INVOLVED IN MARKETING RESEARCH :-

1. Defining the marketing problem tom be tackled and identifying the marketing research problem involved in the task

2. Specifying the information requirement

3. Developing the research design & research procedure.

4. Gathering the information

5. Analyzing the Information & Interpreting it in terms of the problem being tackled.

6. Preparing the Research report. * TECHNIQUES OF MARKETING RESEARCH :-

► Marketing Survey:- Marketing survey is one of the most widely used M.R. Techniques market survey is at times viewed as synonyms with market research. It is just one method of collecting the marketing information required for carrying out a given marketing research task.

* STEP IN MARKET SURVEY :- (1) *. PLANNING THE SURVEY :-

1. Problem definition 2. Selection of the survey method 3. Sampling 4. Questionnaire development 5. Pilot survey

(2) *FIELD WORKS :- 1. Selection and training of investigator 2. Collection of data 3. Supervision

(3) *ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA :- 1. Editing 2. Tabulating, Processing & Interpreting data 3. Statistical analysis & Interpreting

(4)* REPORT MAKING :-

1. Summarizing findings & Recommendations 2. Report writing

OBJECTIVE

OF THE STUDY

* OBJECTIVE OF SURVEY

This Survey is designed to bring about a sharp understanding of the market potential for telecommunication products. The corporate support to different brands. The study is made to assess and access the consumer desire from versatile angles leading to skim out the potentially of market strengthening Vodafone cellular action plan meeting future target not only this much but it also makes a gesture to assess the current to rest competitors of telecommunication. The following are the main objectives of thissurvey:

► To find out the degree of market potentiality for Idea.

►To study the present and future needs of mobile along with corporate support to a particular brand of telecommunication connection in comparison to other competitor of telecom.

► To study the impact of attributes like price quality of connectivity and services etc. for preferring a particular brand of telecommunication connection.

► To assess the potentiality of respondent as future targetcustomer for Vodafone telecommunication.

* OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered yet. Though yet each research study has its own specific purpose thesis can be:-

►To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve newinsights into it (exploratory or formative research).

►To portray accurately the characteristics of a particularindividual situation or a group (descriptive research).

►To determine the frequency with which some thing occurs or with which it is associated with something else (diagnostic research).

► To test a hypothesis of a casual relationship betweenvariables (hypothesis- testing research).

* TYPES OF THE RESEARCH

The basic types of Research are as follows:-

1. Descriptive Research:- The major purpose of this research is sales promotion activities in telecom with special Reference to idea Cellular.

2. Analytical Research:- In this Research the researcher has to use facts or information already available and analyze these to make a critical evaluation of the material.

3. Applied Research:- It aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or a industrial / business organisation.

4. Fundamental Research: It mainly concerned with generalization and with the formulation of a theory.

5. Quantitative Research:- It is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantity.

6. Qualitative Research:- It is concerned with the qualitative phenomenon is phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind.

7. Conceptual Research:- It is related to some abstract ideas or theory.

8. Empirical Research:- It is data based research coming with conclusions, which are capable of being verified by the observation and experiment.

9. Diagnostic Research:- Such a research follow case study method or indepth approaches to reach the basic casual relation.

10. Exploratory Research:- The objective of this research is the developmentof hypothesis rather than their testing.

* My Research:-

My research is for“Viability and Presence of telecom product at non telecom outlets with reference to “ Sikar city" which is being done by myself first time for "Vodafone cellular" so my research is exploratory research.

RESEARCH PROCESSFormulating the Research Problem

↓Extensive Literature Survey

↓Preparing the Research Design

↓Determining Sample Design

↓Collection the Data

↓Analysis of Data

↓Preparation of Report

* Function of Research Design

1.Statement of evidence needed to solve the problem. 2.Anticipation of what will be done with the data to provide answer to problem. 3.Specification of evidence from where it will be obtained and how. 4.Statement of basic schemes whereby answers will be revealed and validated.

5. A guide for the calculation and approval of the feasibility and cost of project. 6.Provision of blue prints or plan 6 or guiding the work.

* Types of Research Design

There are three types of Research Design.

1. Research Design in case of exploratory research studies.

2. Research Design in case of descriptive and diagnostic research studies.

3 . Research design in case of hypothesis- testing research studies

* My Research Design

My research was exploratory research so I am discussing only exploratory research design. In exploratory research design hypothesis is developed on the basis of the influencing variables which are available. The main purpose to do research design is to find new ideas for which the researcher must always remain alert. There are three principles stages of exploratory research design.

First Stage:- Survey of secondary information sources.Second Stage:- Interview with knowledge persons.

Third Stage:- Examination of situation that are analyses to the problem.

Sampling Design:- It refers to the technique or the procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting item for the sample.There are basically two types of sample designs:- 1.Non- probability sampling. 2.Probability sampling.

* Methods of Data Collection

There are two types of data:- 1. Primary data 2. Secondary data► Primary Data:- The primary data are those which are collected a fresh and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character.

► Secondary Data:- In the case of secondary data the nature of data collection work is merely that of complication.

► Collection of Primary Data:- 1.Observation Method. 2.Interview Method. 3.Through questionnaire. 4.Through schedules.

► Collection of Secondary Data:- 1.Various Publication of the Central, State and local government. 2.Technical and trade journals. 3.Book magazines and newspapers.

4.Report and publications of various associations connected with Business and industry, bank stock exchange etc. 5.Reports prepared by research scholars, diversities economists etc. in different field.

► Collection of My Secondary Data :- In my research study I used only primary data and I collected it through the questionnaire methods, I collected these data from Sikar city.

* Limitation of Research Report 1. The finding of this survey were made on the basis of thedata provided by the people. 2.We have to collect the information according to the convenience of the people hence the data may not be accurate.

RESEARCHMETHODOLOGY

* RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Preplanning is sin qua non for any kind of work. Preliminary preparation leads to reach closer to the successful achievement of the target. Initially the topic of work upon was decided and basing on which certain imitative to minimize the gap between planning and achievement was taken. Finally a questionnaire was framed in such a fashion focusing certain most important points. (1) Large no. of customer.

(2) Availability of various telecom and non telecom outlet.

(3) Quality of coverage for existing outlet.

(4 ) Total no. of existing telecommunication user and theirlevel of satisfaction.

(5) Availability of basic amenities in a particular city / town /village.

(6) Finally assessing the exact living standard of the peoplein a particular city / town / village.

Data Surface:- Primary Data.Research Approach : A survey of telecom and non telecom outlet

Research Instrument:- Schedule A schedule was prepared and used for collection the primary data. The schedule consisted of question related to:-

(a) Usage of telecommunication connection and theircoverage connectivity.

(b) Availability of various accessories of telecommunication.

(c) Present condition of existing telecommunication system.

(d) Availability of various towers in the particular area.

Objective Schedule: To gather the full detail to arrive at the present and accurate living standard. Comparison to other telecom with special reference to idea.

Sample Size:- - 500 Structured questionnaire help in collection data, (Primary data). Secondary data were collected by the internet (www.vodafone.com)

* CUSTOMER

SATISFACTION SURVEY

A: PRODUCTS & SERVICES OFFERED BY VODAFONE B: COMPARISON BETWEEN LOOP & VODAFONE

C: VODAFONE FUTURE

(A) : PRODUCTS & SERVICES OFFERED BY VODAFONE 1. CHARGERS :-

Stay connected wherever you are with the nokia travel charger . It's handy when you're camping, flying or on the go. It's also ideal if you forget to keep your phone fully charged.With most nokia phones now packing cameras, organizers and email, this nifty gadget will come in handy for more than just talking. And because it's small, you can pack it in your bag and forget about it - until you run out of juice.

2. CONNECTIVITY :-

Get a great signal at home - without leaning out of the window - thanks to the Vodafone access gateway. The gateway simply plugs into your broadband line, boosting your 3g signal right through your home. It's also small, so you'll hardly notice it's there. Want to share your signal with friends and family? Vodafone access gateway works with any 3g phone. You'll also need a home broadband line,with a minimum speed of 1mbps.

3. HEADSETS & HEADPHONES : -

Get a great signal at home - without leaning out of the window - thanks to the Vodafone access gateway . The gateway simply plugs into your broadband line, boosting your 3g signal right through your home. It's also small, so you'll hardly notice it's there. Want to share your signal with friends and family? If they're on Vodafone you can - up to four people can use the gateway at once. Vodafone access gateway works with any 3g phone. You'll also need a home broadband line, with a minimum speed of 1mbps.The Vodafone access gateway is also available from just 290 a month with select pay monthly offers; please pop into a store for more information

* SERVICES

Vodafone’s new telecoms management service - simplifying the management of fixed and mobile telecoms services. Vodafone Global Enterprise- – The division of Vodafone which manages the communications needs of the largest multinational companies

worldwide – announces the launch of Vodafone telecoms management, a new service which combines and simplifies the management of fixed and mobile telecoms.Vodafone telecoms management is a fully hosted service designed to remove the operational complexity of managing the telecoms environment for multinational businesses. Underpinned by Vodafone’s global support and service level agreements, the service will give multinationals greater visibility and management control over their telecoms expenditure, as well as improve the quality of service delivered to employees.The offering will also deliver a single, online management view of both their fixed and mobile telecoms services. Vodafone consultants will work with customers to assess and scope their current telecoms vendors and services, then develop a management plan aimed to deliver greater efficiency and reduce costs. ADDITIONAL KEY FEATURES INCLUDE * A single online view of spend across all telecoms providers. * Full visibility of telecoms assets such as mobile and fixed devices .

* Ability to control and manage mobile devices. * Capability to secure, lock and remotely wipe mobile devices.

INTERNET MOBILE BROADBAND MOBILE BROADBAND VIA YOUR PHONE

Feel the freedom. Use the internet your way – with full access to VOIP services like SKYPE, and peer to peer services like file sharing With mobile broadband via your phone, you get a whopping 5 GB each month. Simply use your phone as normal – and if you have a 3g phone, connect it to your laptop to turn your phone into a broadband modem. Before you get started, you might need to make a few changes to your phone’s settings – your user manual will have all the details. Add mobile broadband via your phone – for £20 a month .• 5gb a month – ideal for big downloads

• VOIP and peer to peer services – get full access to SKYPE™, file sharing and lots more

• One plan for everything – you don’t need a separate USB modem device. Just use your phone instead

HOMEBROADBAND

Vodafone home broadband gives you high-speed internet access and inclusive anytime landline calls for just 812 RS a month.With no hidden catches, our customers say its better value than their previous home broadband package.

What do I get?

• Super fast broadband connection (up to 8mb) with unlimited Usage.

• Inclusive calls to UK landlines any time.• 25% off calls to UK mobiles.• Free UK-based telephone support 24/7 .• Broadband modem and micro filters included .All for just 812 Rs per month. 30-Day money back guaranteeWe’re so confident Vodafone at home is better value for money than your current broadband package, we’ll give you a 30-day money back guarantee. Call us to find out more.

► What about VAT?

Costs shown include vat at 17.5%. Don't worry; you'll only be charged vat at 15% - while that rate remains –

PRICING STRATEGIES

A: MONTHLY PRICE PLANS

B: PAY AS YOU DO PLANS

C: CALL CHARGES WHILE GOING ABROAD

D: PAY MONTHLY CALL CHARGES

E: BUSINESS CALL CHARGES

* SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ZOOZOOS:

On first look, these “Zoo Zoos” in Vodafone TV ads may resemble animated cartoon characters with an alien look or simply a stupid egg-head character with disproportional white bodies and black

dots for eyes and mouth .But the interesting part is that Zoo Zoos are not animated characters but are actually slim women actors from local Mumbai theatres, dressed in white costumes that are stuffed with foam to portray the characters. These characters are named Zoo Zoos, and are created by O&M. These ads were directed by Sanjay (Vodafone associate officer) and were launched during the ongoing IPL 2 series. ★ VODAFONE SOUNDBITES

Vodafone sound bites explore every aspect of the global music scene. Featuring international artists’ interviews at gigs and festivals, bands’ fantasy group line-ups, pre-show rituals and performers describing their first time on stage, the programme brings an authentic behind the scenes insight into the world of music.Vodafone sound bites is available on tv, via a website (www.mtv-vodafonesoundbites.com) and on mobile (wap.mtv-vodafonesoundbites.com) as a series of twenty one, three minute shows. The website and mobile service carry additional footage, as well as editorial and news elements. Uniquely the programme is available in seven languages on MTV in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the UK and Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and on the mtv European feed, covering sixteen countries!

★ CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT VODAFONE LAUNCHES PHONES FOR THE POOR

From now onwards millions of people all through the world could access mobile phones for the first time with the release of Vodafone’s first ultra-cheap own-branded phones. It is said by the

company that these phones are cheap enough for poor people to have. Plus the Vodafone 125 and 225, released recently, are aimed at expanding the availability of affordable mobile phones in increasing markets. The mobile phones have been produced for Vodafone by Chinese manufacturer ZTE Corporation - the first handsets resulting from an agreement between the two companies announced in December. They will come into view first on Vodafone networks in Egypt, Romania and South Africa. The Vodafone 125 and 225 are reported to be consisting with a similar set of basic features, although the 125 has a monochrome display whereas the 225’s display is colour. Vodafone is also planning to open access to mobile services for more people in countries where mobile networks are the most viable and cost-effective communications service available..

►HAPPY TO HELP:- This is an online 24*7 helpline service for the customers of Vodafone. This provides help to the customer queries related to the products & services like VAS, talktime, recharge & etc.

► CUSTOMER CARE CENTRE:- This is one of the best way of maintaining a healthy customer relationship adopted by VODAFONE. They have their own customer care centre’s all over India wherein the customers directly come to the centre’s regarding the problems they face related to the products & services.

(B) COMPARISN BETWEEN VODAFONE & LOOP MOBILE LOOP MOBILE

Loop mobile strives for customer satisfaction and business success in the telecom service field. Apart from offering prepaid, post-paid,

roaming, voice sms and push mail services in the wireless industry, this mobile service company also provides other values-added services. The communications service company gives an itemized bill, which a detailed bill is accounting the outgoing calls, sms, subscribed services and other such details.The customer of the mobile service company also gets missed call alerts through sms alerts, when the phone is switched off or is out of the coverage area/range. Mobile answer phone service or voice mail service is available for customers not able to attend calls, and if activated allows the caller to record his/her message. Call conferencing is also offered by bpl communication, which a conference between two or more persons. Other services such as clip, which identifies the caller; popular roaming, which allows special roaming without any deposit in India and STD/ISD facility to make national/international calls are provided by the mobile service company. Emergency STD/ISD services, which provide access to STD/ISD calling without any deposits for 20 minutes, clir to secure the customers’ numbers from being reflected on caller’s mobile and fax/data and internet options are also the other value-added services offered by the communications service company. BPL communication offers national roaming that allows the customers to get incoming calls while traveling in India and international roaming to get incoming calls while traveling outside India. E-mails may be unanswered in the inbox and in the present competitive world, quick decision are highly essential. The push mail offered by the mobile service company allows one to access mails even while traveling. The push mail supports Microsoft exchange, lotus notes, SMTP and imap/pop3 servers. ★ PROBLEMS FACED BY LOOP CUSTOMERS BILLING PROBLEMS

I have 2 mobile numbers from bpl mobile. I have given auto pay from my credit card so as to there is no delay in bill payment. This was working fine till November 06. Since December every time

bpl comes back saying that my bank declines the payment i had check with my bank they are saying that my card is in active mode has large limit than bpl mobiles bill still bpl disconnects my connection. This has happened 5-6 times. I have a confirmation from my bank that there is no problem in my card. I have written to bpl at least 10times but none of their senior level people looked in this I am suffering even monetary losses due to this & frustration. It feels like they want to harass you. I have very clean record of bill payment & not even a late payment as I have always kept my bill payment on auto pay. I have submitted this auto pay to their Malad gallery but I don’t know why their operations dept or customer care dept are not able to solve this. My sincere request to all new mobile connection buyers to read through my complaint. “ BY SANJAY KUMAR “

★ REDUCING BALANCE WITHOUT ANY CONFIRMATION

I was in Germany for about two months during which barring one or two numbers no one could reach me despite activating international roaming on my cell. This caused a lot of

inconvenience and I had to pay additional money to make phone-calls. But then on 9th November suddenly my balance went off from Rs. 2,500 to a negative balance after sending and receiving one sms. I logged a complaint on the online system for which i receive two apparently unique complaint numbers doc-c-11117465 and doc-c-111121812 which itself speaks a lot about the complaint management system After returning when I called the absolutely useless help desk and explained the situation to several executives over and over again, they finally gave me the two numbers on which apparently i had spoken. I tried both these numbers here locally from my land line- one number is out of service and the other is a fax line. First of all i could not receive any calls while i was in Germany and then these numbers that were given by the help desk are not even functional numbers. I am really annoyed now and its getting worse cause today I have had another debit of Rs. 99 for activating an inactive international roaming.“By Sandeep kumar ”

★ BAD SERVICE

I am prepaid subscriber , I had given my documents 3 days back , after that they send me a message your request could not proceeded please call mobile assist 0n 555, after that last night they suspended my both prepaid line , when i visit Mahim gallery they said signature is not there on application form , I signed on

application & they promise me that my line will be activated within an hour but still it is suspended so please i request do not use BPL mobile. Now i have already taken airtel card & i am not going to use bpl anymore. Airtel & Vodafone is best. “By Mukesh kumar ”

(C ) : FUTURE OF VODAFONE

VODAFONE SUGGESTS FUTURE ANDROID PHONE Vodafone have confirmed that their currently looking at developing more android phones to complement their new HTC magic handset, and that some future android devices could appearwithout google. In an interview with techradar.com, Vodafone’s Rachel Williams revealed that whilst the HTC magic arise bundled with all the well-known google services future android handsets may feature a basic package allowing networks to integrate their own clients’ software instead.

Williams also went onto confirm that more Vodafone android phones were likely in the future, “we are looking at other android devices by joining the open handset alliance it shows our commitment (to ranging other devices using Androids)”.

VODAFONE APPLICATION STORE COMING SOON

Vodafone on May 12TH 2009 announced plans to open their own application stores for third partyb application that will be made available across a wide variety of mobile platforms.

VODAFONE COMPLETES HUTCH ACQUISITION

On day when Indian conglomerate Essar threatened legal action against Hutch-Essar deal Vodafone’s CEO Arun Sarin met Communications & IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran & briefed him on the company’s future plans for India. The British telecom major won the bid to acquire the stake of Hutchison Telecom in India’s fourth largest mobile operator Hutch – Essar. Essar sources said the company is considering legal action over the deal on account of it being ignored in taking key business decisions.Essar is concerned over Vodafone’s move to forge ahead with plans like networks sharing without consulting it first.

DATA ANANLYSIS

★ For Telecom Outlets

(1) Are you selling sim card ?

YES NO72% 28 %

(2). Which type of sim service provided?

Pre Paid Post Paid Both

70 % 20 % 10 %

(3). Are you sell recharge voucher’s ?

YES NO 68% 32 %

(4). Which kind of recharge vouchers sell mostly ?

Paper Recharge

ElectronicRecharge

Both

45% 30% 25 %

(5). Which Network you prefer to sell ?

Vodafone Bsnl Idea Airtel Tata Reliance

30% 20% 10% 20% 8% 12%

(6). Do you have any problem with any service provider ?

Yes No 39% 61%

(7). Are you satisfy with the current Vodafone plans and Service ?

Yes No Can’t say 35 % 25% 40%

★For Non Telecom outlets

(8) . Do you sell Sim & Recharge?

Yes No

70% 30%

(9) Do you know the attractive margins & schemes ?

Yes No 59% 41%

(10) . Would you like to sell Sim & Recharge when your Customer demands?

Yes No 90 % 10%

(11) . Is there any demand of Sim & Recharge ?

Yes No Upto some extant 60% 30% 10%

CONCLUSION

With this the researcher come to the conclusion part of the research report. It was a wonderful experience for the researcher of working on the topic selected by him. Although it was not an easy task collecting information in the competitive market of telecom services. But taking up the challenge itself was very interesting. * It is clear from the analysis Vodafone cellular is much better than other telecom due to the survey of Siddharth Nagar according

to the customer of Siddharth Nagar living standard of high people and lower people.

* By the survey I have found that there are many telecom company but and many competitors in market but no any one defeat the Vodafone cellular.

* Vodafone with the help of its correct marketing strategy & quality products & services at an affordable price is one of the world’s leading telecom companies with the customer base of over 250 million & the future plans & policies of Vodafone will help the company to achieve its target of adding 500 million by the end of 2010.

* Many activity of Vodafone cellular as tariff plan, Recharge, there activity customer satisfaction and prove all the best of other telecom .

LIMITATIONS

There are different reason in the different to markets for not using the Vodafone cellular. The limitation's which was found by me are as under.

1. Lack of proper advertisement and hoarding Vodafone cellular are firstly emphasizing on the urban area & developed markets

only .

2. Lack of tower's of the Vodafone cellular in many places.

3. Lack of regular visit is the small markets.

4. Lack of information provided by the company to the rural area people.

5. Lack of taking interest in the eastern U.P. region.

RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

Vodafone cellular is the growing and big competitive industries, today in telecommunication sector there are many company, like BSNL, Airtel, Reliance and now idea & TATA has also launched his telecommunication service TATA Indicom, so, Vodafone has to face many competition in the market in the case of sales promotion activities in telecom with special reference to vodafone cellular, so, Vodafone has improve thee tower in the Rural area

also I want to recommended to Vodafone cellular to established there tower as fast as they can do so, Vodafone is a big and stable company so they have to improve themselves as a good telecom service provider.

PROMOTION

Another one of the 4P's is 'promotion'. This includes all of the tools available to the marketer for 'marketing communication'. As with Neil H.Borden's marketing mix, marketing communications has its own 'promotions mix.' Think of it like a cake mix, the basic ingredients are always the same. However if you vary the amounts of one of the ingredients, the final outcome is different. It is the same with promotions. You can 'integrate' different aspects of the promotions mix to deliver a unique campaign. The elements of the promotions mix are: * Personal Selling * Sales Promotion * Public Relations * Advertising * Direct Mail * Trade Fairs and Exhibitions

Sponsorship

The elements of the promotions mix are integrated to form a coherent campaign. As with all forms of communication. The message from the marketer follows the 'communications process' as illustrated above. For example, a radio advert is made for a car manufacturer. The car manufacturer (sender) pays for a specific advert with contains a message specific to a target audience (encoding).

It is transmitted during a set of commercials from a radio station (Message / media). The message is decoded by a car radio

(decoding) and the target consumer interprets the message (receiver). He or she might visit a dealership or seek further information from a web site (Response). The consumer might buy a car or express an interest or dislike (feedback). This information will inform future elements of an integrated promotional campaign. Perhaps a direct mail campaign would push the consumer to the point of purchase. Noise represent the thousand of marketing communications that a consumer is exposed to everyday, all competing for attention.

The Promotion Mix

Let us look at the individual components of the promotions mix in more detail. Remember all of the elements are 'integrated' to form a specific communications campaign. :-

1. Personal Selling :- Personal Selling is an effective way to manage personal customer relationships. The sales person acts on behalf of the organization. They tend to be well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling. However sales people are very expensive and should only be used where there is a genuine return on investment. For example salesmen are often used to sell cars or home improvements where the margin is high.

2. Sales Promotion:- Sales promotion tend to be thought of as being all promotions apart from advertising, personal selling, and public relations. For example the BOGOF promotion, or Buy One Get One Free. Others include couponing, money-off promotions, competitions, free accessories (such as free blades with a new razor), introductory offers (such as buy digital TV and get free installation), and so on. Each sales promotion should be carefully costed and compared with the next best alternative.

3. Public Relations (PR):- Public Relations is defined as 'the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics' (Institute of Public Relations). It is relatively cheap, but certainly not cheap. Successful strategies tend to be long-term and plan for all eventualities. All airlines exploit PR; just watch what happens when there is a disaster. The pre-planned PR machine clicks in very quickly with a very effective rehearsed plan.

4. Direct Mail :- Direct mail is very highly focussed upon targeting consumers based upon a database. As with all marketing, the potential consumer is 'defined' based upon a series of attributes and similarities. Creative agencies work with marketers to design a highly focussed communication in the form of a mailing. The mail is sent out to the potential consumers and responses are carefully monitored. For example, if you are marketing medical text books, you would use a database of doctors' surgeries as the basis of your mail shot.

5. Advertising :- Advertising is a 'paid for' communication. It is used to develop attitudes, create awareness, and transmit

information in order to gain a response from the target market. There are many advertising 'media' such as newspapers (local, national, free, trade), magazines and journals, television (local, national, terrestrial, satellite) cinema, outdoor advertising (such as posters, bus sides).

6. Sponsorship :- Sponsorship is where an organization pays to be associated with a particular event, cause or image. Companies will sponsor sports events such as the Olympics or Formula One. The attributes of the event are then associated with the sponsoring organization. The elements of the promotional mix are then integrated to form a unique, but coherent campaign.

SUGGESTION

SUGGESTIONS

Following are the suggestions given so that Vodafone can serve people & its customer in an improvement way :-

►Vodafone should decrease call rates for local users .

►Vodafone should provide more offers to post-paid

Customer so that the number of post paid customer Increase.

► Vodafone should introduce some new sms sheme For the youngsters.

► Vodafone should introduce more scheme & offers ► Vodafone should introduce more scheme & offers To its old customers.

QUESTIONNAIRES

Q. (1.). Are you selling sim card ? Ans;- (a) Yes (b) No

(2). Which type of sim service provided?Ans:- (a)Prepaid (b) Postpaid (c) Both-

(3). Are you sell recharge voucher’s ? Ans:- (a) Yes (b) No

(4). Which kind of recharge vouchers sell mostly ? Ans:- (a) Paper Recharge (b) Electronic Recharge (c) Both

(5). Which Network you prefer to sell ?Ans:- (a)Vodafone (b) Bsnl (c)Idea (d) Airtel (e) Tata (g)Reliance

(6). Do you have any problem with any service provider ? Ans:- (a) Yes (b) No

(7). Are you satisfy with the current Vodafone plans and Service ?Ans;- (a) Yes (b) No (c) Can’t Say (8) Do you know the attractive margins & schemes ? Ans:- (a) Yes (b) No

(9) . Do you sell Sim & Recharge? Ans:- (a) Yes (b) No

(10) . Would you like to sell Sim & Recharge when your Customer demands?Ans:- (a) Yes (b) No

(11) . Is there any demand of Sim & Recharge ? Ans:- (a) Yes (b) No (c) Upto Some Extant

Bibliography

(1 ) www.google.com

(2) www.vodafone.in

(3)C.P. Bhatnagar, Performance Management Systems

(4)K. Ashwatthapa, Human Resource and Personnel Management.

(5.) www.vodafone.com