Vodafone the name derived from : “ Voice data fone”
Companies Vision: “Reflect the provision of Voice and Data services over the mobile phone”
Vodafone Group plc, a multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a public limited company, registered in London Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and few other stock markets. Established in 1991 with Headquarters in London and Newbury, Berkshire. Rank’s 4th in terms of mobile customer base owns and operates the network in 25 countries and partner networks in further 42 countries.
On 28th Oct. 2005 Vodafone acquired 10% stake of Airtel in India, which was the largest mobile phone networks in India. On 11th Feb. 2007, the company acquired 67% stake of Hutch Essar for $11.1 Billion and sold 5.6% stake back to Airtel retaining 4.4% of the remaining stake in Airtel. On 21st Sep. 2007, Hutch was rebranded to Vodafone in India. On May 2011, Vodafone Group Plc bought the remaining share of Vodafone Essar from Essar Group for $5 Billion.
Due to high competition and entry of Reliance Jio in India. Mergers and Acquisition were the preliminary options and by late January 2017, Vodafone Group’s unit in India and Idea Cellular Ltd were in talks. On 20th Mar. 2017 Idea and Vodafone Group’s unit in India Announced their merger leading to 400 million customers, where Vodafone owns 45.1 % and Idea’s parent Company Aditya Birla holds 26%, Catering 35% of the Indian cellphone market and becomes the third largest network in cellphone service industry across the country.
Let dig deep into more such cases and learn about different other competitors of Vodafone.
Competitors of Vodafone
RELIANCE JIO
The new kid in the block that managed to ruffle some feathers in the telecom industry in India is Reliance Jio.
A subsidiary of Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio operates a national 4G LTE network and covers over 22 telecom circles in India.
Launched on 27th December 2015, Reliance Jio soon became the second largest mobile network operator in India and the seventh largest mobile network operator in the world with a subscriber base of 306 million subscribers.
With its aggressive growth strategies, Reliance Jio has become a major threat to the network operator to the existing mobile network players (Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, MTNL, BSNL Etc.).
Jio Gigafibre, Jio phone, Jionet WIFI, LYF smartphones, Jio Chat, JioCinema, JioCloud etc are few products and services launched by Reliance Jio to outgrow its competitors and look out for more avenues to expand their offerings.
A wise man once said:
The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency
And this is exactly what Reliance Jio didn’t want to do and hence they started looking out for alliances outside India and create a global impact.
In February 2016, Jio announced a global alliance of Mobile Network Operators which include
The growth strategies used by the Reliance Jio and the willingness to try something different always is what makes it lethal and one of the top competitors of Vodafone
BHARTI AIRTEL
The story of the telecom industry in India would be left incomplete without Bharti Airtel. The leader of its time, Bharti Airtel has faced a lot of heat from its competitors like Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea.
Founded on 7th June, 1995, Airtel is an Indian global telecommunications service provider which operates in 18 countries across South Africa, Asia and in Channel Islands and provides fixed landline, Broadband and voice services and GSM, 3G, 4G, LTE, VOLT mobile Services.
Once a telecom leader in India, Airtel dropped down to third place behind Vodafone + Idea and Reliance Jio in terms of subscriber base.
The fight to claim the top spot in the telecom industry in a saturated market like India is far from over and Airtel is one such competitor that cant be discounted.
Free voice calls and cheaper data plans has surely disrupted Airtel but the company still has many tricks in its pockets to bounce back and retain its lost position.
The never say never attitude is what makes Airtel one of the biggest competitor of vodafone in India.
CHINA MOBILE
Moving away from the local market, lets see who all are the major competitors of Vodafone in the world.
China Mobile came into existence in 1997, from China Telecommunication Corporation, a China’s government owed, and a public limited company registered in NYSE and Hong Kong Stock exchange and is the dominant player in China. It is a telecommunication corporation that gives mobile and multimedia system services through its nationwide telecommunications network across China.
China Mobile is the largest mobile telecommunications corporation by capitalization and world’s largest mobile operator with 902 million subscribers. It provides GSM, 3G and 4G mobile services. The third largest Broadband ISP and Fixed land line services were added in the existing portfolio by acquiring China Tietong in 2008. Over the years of existence, with multiple acquisitions of alternative firms China Mobile lead to series of growth and high revenues.
It has an excellent market share in China, Pakistan, Hongkong. In 2017 MVNO services were launched in United Kingdom by China Mobile called CM Link aiming Chinese population, Visitors and students living in UK and sharing plans which include free call to China Mobile Phones in China. Due to its business Strategies, Government support and high revenues it is considered one of the biggest competitors of Vodafone.
VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS
Verizon Communication is an American Broadband and telecommunication company and a corporate component of American Broadband and telecommunications company and a corporate component of Down Jones Industrial Average. Started in 1983 as bell Atlantic with a footprint covering New Jersey to Virginia and emerged as part of the 1984 breakup od AT&T into seven “BabyBells”.
In 1997 Bell Atlantic Merged with another regional Bell to Maine. The combined company kept the Bell Atlantic name. In 2000. The Bell Atlanitic Merged with former independent phone company GTE, and adopted the name “Verizon”, a portmanteau of veritas and horizon. Headquarters located in the Verizon building at 140 west street in lower Manhattan, New York City. In 2015 it acquired AOL, Later AOL and Yahoo combined into a new division named Oath Inc. In 2017, Verizon is the only publicly traded company registered it self in NYSE and NASDAQ market and second largest telecommunication company by revenue after ATT. By April 2019 Verizon Wireless one of the Verizon’s subsidiary became the second largest U.S wireless communication service provider with 153.1 million customers
Product and services offer are Fixed Line data and Voice, FIOS Internet, FIOS Digital Voice Plans both domestic and International, Fixed- Line television, FIOS Tv, Wireless Voice and Data services. With its wide range of products and services, verizon communications is considered one of the main competitors of Vodafone.
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