The multinational telecommunications company, Vodafone, has committed to reduce its global carbon footprint that is generated as a result of its business operations to net zero by 2040. The company has already outlined a number of actions to reduce the environmental impact of its activities. It has set a new goal of stricter targets for the wider business and related third parties. As stated by the company, by 2030 all carbon emissions from its activities and the energy purchased and consumed will be eliminated. Vodafone has also committed itself to halving the use of its carbon footprint from Scope 3 sources, including joint ventures, all supply chain purchases, products it has sold and business travel by 2030. The group plans to completely eliminate emissions from Scope 3 by 2040. This plan will shorten the original projections by ten years, as the operator initially set a net zero target…
Vodafone Group, a British multinational telecommunications company, and the Saudi Arabia-based telecommunications provider Saudi Telecom Company (STC) are continuing discussion over a 55% stake sale of Vodafone shares in its Egyptian business, despite the expiry of the initial offer deadline last week. The two parties agreed in separate statements on a “misalignment” on Vodafone’s side in preparation for a $2.4 billion transaction of its Egyptian stake. STC said that the non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) to acquire the stake had ended without an agreement, but negotiations with Vodafone would continue. Furthermore, the British telecom company commented: “Vodafone now looks to STC and Telecom Egypt to find a suitable agreement to enable the transaction to close.” The MoU was announced in January of this year when STC offered $2.4 billion for the major part of a stake in Vodafone Egypt, which was expected to close at the end of…
The Chinese tech company OPPO, currently the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in its home country after Huawei, has announced a comprehensive partnership agreement with the UK-based telecom giant Vodafone. Under the deal, Vodafone will become an OPPO partner and bring its full-range of 4G and 5G smartphones to retail and online channels in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands. According to the announcement, the collaboration between the two companies will give customers more choice and accelerate 5G adoption in Vodafone’s international markets. Driven by strong growth ambitions, an innovative product portfolio and advanced 5G technology expertise, the leading Chinese smartphone brand has been very successful in its domestic market. With annual handset shipments of more than 100 million units, OPPO believes that it is “a natural partner for Vodafone’s leading gigabit network”. Alen Wu, Vice President and President of Global Sales at OPPO, said, “OPPO…
The three largest telecommunications providers in Germany, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Vodafone, have announced a partnership to build 6,000 new mobile sites in order to improve broadband coverage in the country. The companies are planning to work closely together and share the use of the network, aiming to provide the best possible mobile broadband coverage for customers in rural areas, as well as along road, rail and inland waterway transportation routes. This is a condition that the operators are required to fulfill as specified in the 5G spectrum auction held by German federal regulators earlier this year. Dirk Wossner, Telekom Deutschland’s Managing Director, said, “The planned collaboration is a milestone for network expansion in Germany. Our common goal is to eliminate coverage gaps in the mobile network as soon as possible. Sharing infrastructure is nothing new for us. Sharing it at this scale, however, is a major step in the right…
Vodafone has made a move that could put an end to the global dominance of the three main telecom equipment providers – Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia – by starting trials on open access radio technology in the UK. The company is the first wireless carrier to run European tests of Open Radio Access Networks (OpenRAN), a cellular infrastructure technology that may increase the number of companies supplying telecom network equipment and assist in connecting more of the world’s most remote communities using lower cost systems. In a statement, Vodafone said that “the global supply of telecom network equipment has become concentrated in a small handful of companies over the past few years” and added that a wider choice of suppliers will increase flexibility and innovation, thus helping to address some of the cost challenges of internet services in rural communities. Telecom operators use RAN infrastructure, masts and antennae…
Vodafone Carrier Services, the division responsible for Vodafone’s global trading of voice, network connectivity and messaging services, has announced that the Voipfuture Qrystal solution will be used for monitoring the quality of the company’s end-to-end, IP-based voice network service. According to Voipfuture, their platform provides advanced voice quality analytics, reporting and troubleshooting by means of signaling and media metrics. The Qrystal platform acts as a passive monitoring system, and analyzes SIP and RTP traffic in real-time. This technology, patented by Voipfuture, uses fixed time slicing to deliver quality data in five-second units. Quality data is gathered and combined into different levels, thus providing accurate information to assess the quality of overall traffic as well as for single calls. Clive Goodwin, Head of International Voice Services at Vodafone, said, “We designed our Intelligent Routing platform to deliver High Definition voice (HD voice) services across a large number of countries…
Vodafone New Zealand recently announced it will be the first telecommunications company to launch an Intelligent Digital Human in cooperation with a Kiwi company, FaceMe. While the identity of the Digital Human should be revealed within the next two months, it is already clear that the AI-based assistant will be of great benefit in improving the self-service experience for Vodafone’s customers, and allow staff to devote time working with more complex customer demands. “Great customer experience happens through meaningful conversations. FaceMe has evolved AI technology to create Intelligent Digital Humans that are human-like in their appearance and interaction. Thanks to machine learning, they are capable of continuously learning how to anticipate our customers’ needs and better serve them,” explained Vodafone’s director of Customer Operations, Helen van Orton. Orton emphasized that this initiative is not a replacement for front-line customer service, but will rather aid in maximizing staff…
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have finally completed their $23 billion merger after the National Company Law Tribunal approved their request to join forces in becoming the number one telecom service provider in India. The new entity will be listed as Vodafone Idea Ltd and will have a base of over 400 million subscribers (35% subscriber market share and 32,2% of the market revenue share), surpassing the long-time market leader Bahrati Airtel. The rival that aroused the idea for the merger with its successful entry into the market, Reliance Jio, is left in third place. “Today, we have created India’s leading telecom operator. It is truly a historic moment. And this is much more than just about creating a large business. It is about our Vision of empowering and enabling a New India and meeting the aspirations of the youth of our country,” commented the chairman of the new board…
While the IoT market continues to grow, Vadofone has announced the launch of two new consumer IoT products in their V by Vodafone range – V-SOS Band by Vodafone and V-Kids Watch by Vodafone. Last November, the telecom giant made its move into the consumer IoT market with their new range of devices called V by Vodafone. The initial launch focused on four products from different categories: V-Auto by Vodafone, V-Pet by Vodafone, V-Camera by Vodafone and V-Bag by Vodafone, all easily managed via their V by Vodafone App. The newest additions to the group are human wearable devices aimed to assist people with mobility issues, and to help children develop their independence in a secure manner. The V-SOS Band by Vodafone is described as an emergency alert wristband, that enables the wearer to send an SOS signal to up to four contacts simply by pressing a button for three…
The mobile operator, Vodafone Ukraine, intends to launch their 4G network for the 1800 MHz band on 1 July, 2018. The expansion of the 1800 MHz band network will allow Vodafone to cover a wider territory, enabling access for millions of Ukrainians to 4G mobile Internet. This fourth generation service will be available in 50 settlements across 10 main regions of Ukraine: Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odessa, Mikolayiv, Poltava, Sumi, Kirovograd and Kherson. Besides the advantage of wider coverage, Vodafone is excited about the higher speed, improved connection stability and faster network response times for their mobile users. The other two major Ukrainian operators, LifeCell and Kyivstar, who won the 1800 MHz 4G LTE mobile license along with Vodafone at an auction held this March, will also be introducing similar services in early July.