Vodafone’s UK chief voiced confidence the company was well placed to meet consumer demand for converged fixed and mobile services, despite being up against two fully integrated rivals in BT and the newly-combined Virgin Media O2 [1].
Speaking at the company’s Vodafone Reinvent strategy event, Vodafone UK CEO Ahmed Essam (pictured) asserted the operator was in a good position in mobile and fixed sectors, having just unveiled its latest proposition Vodafone Together.
“Clearly Virgin [Media] O2 will be a decent, properly converged competitor, but they will have to take a lot of steps,” he said, pointing to the fact Vodafone is already able to offer competitive converged services.
He added Vodafone has “one of the best mobile networks and are leveraging partnerships to deliver the latest fixed connectivity solutions”.
The company currently provides fixed using partners including City Fibre and through wholesale agreement with BT’s Openreach.
BT and Virgin Media O2 are each in a position to offer their own fixed services.
Tariff refresh
During the event, Vodafone unveiled its latest converged plan alongside updated mobile tariffs under the Evo tag, which it is promoting as a flexible plan combining financing, trade-ins and early upgrades with variable-length contracts.
It claims these factors will make the latest devices more affordable.
Vodafone Together combines Evo with its fixed Vodafone Pro Broadband proposition, which launched in March and uses 4G as a back-up to guarantee Wi-Fi availability. Taking both services offers users a discount of “up to” £3 per month.
For users taking Vodafone Together, the company will donate a SIM card with 20GB of data, calls and texts for up to a year for distribution by a charity.
PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore noted Vodafone’s converged offer was still lacking the level of broadcast offered by major rivals: “TV is the missing piece in this quest to be the UK converged champion.”
“If it has grander aspirations to compete with BT and the newly merged Virgin Media O2 entity, then it must offer a TV service of some kind.”
[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/telefonica-liberty-global-uk-merger
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