Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc, initially known as Racal Telecom, is a multinational mobile, landline, broadband and digital television operator headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire, UK. It is present in many countries, being the second largest telecommunications operator in the world in number of customers and profits (in both cases behind China Mobile). Globally, Vodafone had 439 million customers in December 2017.
The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It has a market price of approximately £89.1 billion as of July 2012, making it the third most listed company on the London Stock Market. It is also listed secondarily on the New York Stock Exchange (NASDAQ).
The name Vodafone comes from VOice-DAta-FONE (Voice and Data Telephone), a name chosen by the founder, who sensed from those years ago that data would be one of the fundamental elements of future telecommunications.
Vodafone made its first mobile call in the UK a few minutes after midnight on January 1, 1985. Vodafone UK made its first 3G voice call on April 16, 2001.
History
Precedents: Racal Strategic Radio Ltd
The evolution of the 'Vodafone' has its origins in 1982 with the establishment of 'Racal Strategic Radio Ltd', a subsidiary of Racal Electronics – a company dedicated to the manufacture of military radio technologies. At the initiative of Jan Stenbeck, Racal Strategic Radio Ltd formed a joint venture with the company Millicom, which is called 'Racal Vodafone'. This company would be the one that would evolve to the current Vodafone.
Evolution as a brand of Racal Telecom: 1980 to 1991
In 1980, Ernest Harrison, Chairman of Racal Electronics plc., made an agreement with Lord Weinstock of the General Electric Company to give Racal access to some GEC battlefield radio technologies. The head of Racal's military radio division, Gerry Whent, had been sketching plans with Ernest Harrison to introduce the company to the commercial radio market, having visited GE's military radio factory in Virginia, USA.) to learn about the commercial uses of military radio technologies.
In 1982, the newly formed subsidiary of Racal Strategic Radio won one of two mobile phone licenses put up for bid in the UK (the other being British Telecom). The network, trade-named Racal Vodafone, was a joint venture owned 80% by Racal, 15% by Milicom, and 5% by Hambros Bank.
The Vodafone brand was launched on 1 January 1985 with its first headquarters at Courtyard in Newbury, Berkshire. Shortly after launch Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited. On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics bought all its shares from the rest of the company's minority shareholders for a total of 110 pounds, keeping all of Vodafone.
In September 1988, the company again changed its name to Racal Telecom. On October 26, 1988, Racal Telecom, majority controlled by Racal Electronics; It took 20% of its shares to the stock market, listing on the London Stock Exchange. Its good results on the stock market led to the paradoxical situation that Racal Telecom came to have a higher market value than all of Racal Electronics. Under market pressure for Racal shareholders to realize the full value of the company, Harrison decided in 1991 to spin off Racal Telecom.
Vodafone Group, later Vodafone Airtouch plc: 1991 to 2000
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On September 16, 1991, Racal Telecom became independent from Racal Electronics under the name Vodafone Group, with Gerry Whent as company director.
In July 1996, Vodafone acquired, for £30,600,000, two-thirds of the communications company Talkland that it did not already own. On November 19, 1996, in a defensive strategic move, Vodafone bought Peoples Phone for £77 million, with 181 stores, whose consumers largely used Vodafone's network. In a similar move, the company also acquired an 80% stake in Astec Communications that it did not already own, a service provider with 21 stores.
In January 1997, Gerald Whent retired, leaving Christopher Gent as CEO of the company. That same year, Vodafone changed its logo. The new logo consisted of a quotation mark circumscribed in a red bubble, representing the action of "speaking". From this change of image, Vodafone began to use the color red as a corporate flag. This logo, with slight variations, has represented the company globally until today.
On June 29, 1999, Vodafone completed the purchase of the US telecommunications company AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Vodafone Airtouch plc. The merger of both companies began trading on June 30. In order to mitigate the possible monopoly problems that the company would face, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in the German E-Plus Mobilfunk in parallel. The Airtouch acquisition also gave Vodafone 35% of Mannesmann, owner at the time of the largest mobile network in Germany, and made it a shareholder in the Spanish company Airtel, of which Airtouch was one of its largest shareholders.
On September 21 of the same year, Vodafone reached an agreement to merge its assets in the mobile market with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form the company Verizon Wireless. The merger was completed on April 4, 2000, just a few months before Bell Atlantic merged with GTE to form Verizon Communications, Inc.
In November 1999, Vodafone made an unsolicited offer to acquire Mannesmann, which was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann increased after the German bought the British mobile phone company Orange. Vodafone interpreted the purchase of Orange as a hostile move, since it made Mannesmann a direct competitor in the United Kingdom of Vodafone. Vodafone president Gent stated that Mannesmann's move was to break a 'gentlemen's agreement', consisting of not competing on each other's territory.
Vodafone's hostile takeover attempt led to strong protests in Germany, and a major confrontation between the two companies in which Mannesmann resisted Vodafone's efforts. However, on February 3, 2000, Mannesmann's shareholders' meeting agreed to the merger under an increased offer of £112 billion; what was then the largest corporate merger in history. To avoid problems with a possible monopoly lawsuit, Vodafone agreed to get rid of the 'Orange' and all of its assets and customers. The European Union approved the merger in April 2000, and a month later 'Orange' would be bought by France Télécom. The Mannesmann conglomerate of companies was therefore dissolved and all its manufacturing-related assets were sold.
Vodafone Group plc: since 2000
On July 28, 2000, the company decided to ditch the name 'Airtouch' and changed its name, recovering the one it had previously: Vodafone Group, plc. As of this decade, the company's global expansion would begin with the purchase of a considerable number of companies in different countries.
In 2001, the Vodafone Group acquired Eircell from Eircom, the largest telecommunications company in Ireland. Eircell consequently changed its name and brand name to Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone then bought the third largest operator in Japan, J-Phone, which was the first to introduce mobile phones with a camera to Japan.
On December 17, 2001, Vodafone introduced the concept of 'Associated Networks' (Partner Networks), signing an agreement with TDC Mobil in Denmark. This new concept implied the introduction of Vodafone's international services in the local market, without the need for Vodafone to invest in the company. This was to extend the Vodafone brand and its services in markets where it had no participation in any local operator. Thus, the agreement contemplated that the services provided by Vodafone would be sold with a double-brand strategy, adding the banner 'Vodafone' to the brand. second after the name of the local operator (For example: TDC Mobil-Vodafone).
In 2007, Vodafone reached a sponsorship agreement with the McLaren Formula 1 team, which was commercially renamed Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
In May 2011, Vodafone Group bought the remaining shares it did not already own in Vodafone Essar in India from Essar Group Ltd for $5 billion.
Progressively, the Vodafone Group bought their shares from the many minority shareholders of the Spanish company Airtel, until in October 2001 it managed to take over 100% of the company, and changed its name and trademark to Vodafone Spain.
On 1 December 2011, Vodafone acquired Reading-based Bluefish Communications Ltd, an ICT technology consultancy. The acquisition was at the core of the activities of the Vodafone group subsidiary—Vodafone Global Enterprise—in implement cloud computing solutions and new services to large corporations.
In April 2012, Vodafone announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04 billion. The acquisition gives Vodafone access to CWW's fiber optic networks, enabling the company to offer unified telecommunications solutions in the UK and other countries.
On June 24, 2013, Vodafone announces that it is acquiring the German cable company Kabel Deutschland, an acquisition worth €7.7 billion.
Vodafone Spain
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Vodafone Spain is one of the Group's four main subsidiaries. Vodafone gradually bought the shares of other minority partners until it took control of the old Airtel. It has led the acquisition of new customers in the Spanish market since 2004. The parent company has awarded one of the R&D centers to Vodafone Spain. Within the European market it is the leading mobile phone operator, in Spain it ranks second after Movistar. Vodafone offers UMTS services in Spain. On October 6, 2007, Vodafone acquired the operator Tele2 España and thus became an operator of comprehensive telecommunications services (mobile telephony, fixed telephony and ADSL).
In April 2014, the Vodafone SAU group acquired the Spanish company ONO for 7.2 billion euros. On July 2, 2014, the European Commission approved the purchase, making it effective from that day.
On December 18, 2014, it launched Lowi, an MVNO owned by it, created with the aim of competing with the low cost rates of mobile telephony.
On June 15, 2019, Vodafone began to commercially offer 5G technology in some of its rates and cities.
Criticism and scandals
Customer complaints
- Spain in 2018
Vodafone Spain was the most denounced telecommunications company in Spain by users of the FACUA-Consumidores en Acción association in 2018. It was voted Worst Company of the Year by consumers in 2018.
Customer complaints include complaints about higher-than-expected invoices, breaches of commercial offers and failure to respect the permanence clauses.
In 2014 Vodafone was fined 50,000 euros precisely for claiming a non-existent debt of 177 euros.
- Australia
In Australia, Vodafone has been severely criticized (particularly towards the end of 2010) due to constant customer complaints alleging poor service and serious technical insufficiencies. This earned it the nickname Vodafail (Spanish: "Vodafallo"). In response, Vodafone developed a "new" service network and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
Operation Tempora: data leak to spy agencies in 2013
Top-secret intelligence documents leaked by computer analyst Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed, among others, that Vodafone (and other companies), under the code name Gerontic, collaborates with the British intelligence agency GCHQ giving him secret access to its network of undersea communications cables, as well as giving him data on phone calls, emails or Facebook posts of millions of his customers. This information is finally analyzed by the US NSA and GCHQ itself within the code name operation Tempora. (for more information see data on global surveillance).
2011 Egyptian Revolution
Vodafone was singled out as one of those responsible for the repression suffered by protesters in Egypt during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. On January 27, 2011, Vodafone, responsible for much of Egypt's telecommunications infrastructure, turned off the voice and data services of Egyptian citizens and companies at the request of the government, whose head at the time was Hosni Mubarak. The newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that the Egyptian government's action has no precedents in the history of the Internet. Vittorio Colao, CEO of the Vodafone group, defended himself against these accusations, alleging that the company was bound by law to comply with the instructions of the Egyptian government.
Tax evasion in 2010
In September 2010, an investigation by Private Eye magazine revealed numerous details about Vodafone's tax evasion activities. He reported that Vodafone, during the acquisition of the German giant Mannesmann AG, made a tax bill ("tax declaration") through a subsidiary in Luxembourg created expressly to pay taxes in Luxembourg, where they are especially low compared to the surrounding European countries. After a long legal fight with HMRC, a department of the British government responsible for paying taxes, among other functions, the parties agreed that Vodafone would pay £1.25 billion in connection with the Mannesmann acquisition (during the litigation even a senior government official HMRC, John Connors, switched sides and became a senior executive at Vodafone). Experts estimated, based on the company's accounts, that the final bill to Vodafone in taxes and write-offs as a result of negotiations and litigation was around £6 billion.
News of tax evasion, otherwise carried out legally, sparked protests between October 2010 and April 2011 outside the company's UK stores, organized by UK Uncut, a network of anti-austerity groups and trying to go after tax evasion. The first protests led to the closure of more than a dozen stores, including the company's flagship Oxford Street store in central London.
Violation of Wikipedia policies in 2009
In December 2009, Vodafone violated Wikipedia's policies, creating an article with false information about an alleged tradition to gather friends and loved ones called "Borabó"; this to promote an advertising campaign under the slogan Feliz borabó.
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