Vodafone Share Discussion Threads

[diku] 29/1/2021 10:07

When the Wall Street inner circle loses money they don't like it...

[pally12] 28/1/2021 14:51

The trading frenzy over GameStop drew comment from the incoming Biden administration on Wednesday with the treasury and other regulators announcing they were monitoring the situation.

[muscletrade] 28/1/2021 07:36

Voda considering options for its Ghana business as the British telecommunications giant focuses on reorganising and paying down debt, according to people familiar with the matter. The company could sell its majority stake in the unit to Johannesburg-listed Vodacom Group Ltd., in which Vodafone is the biggest shareholder, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous as the plans are still private. The West African country’s government will have to approve of any deal, they said. Spokespeople for Vodafone and Vodacom declined to comment. Ghana’s Minister of Communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful did not respond to phone calls nor a text message seeking comment. The carrier “may struggle to find attractive offers for its Ghanaian unit -- given a dwindling subscriber base and 30% government stake -- so a sale to its African subsidiary Vodacom looks likely,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Erhan Gurses said in a note. Under Chief Executive Officer Nick Read, Vodafone has been focusing more on Europe and Africa to generate more income from core assets. The company recently sold units in New Zealand and Malta, and is targeting an initial public offering of its mobile-mast business in early 2021. Vodafone has been steadily consolidating its Africa interests under Vodacom, in which it holds a more than 60% stake, selling a minority shareholding in Kenyan market-leader Safaricom Ltd. to the South African company in 2017. Vodafone also told management of the Ghana business to report to Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub as of April last year, another step toward bringing the company’s operations on the continent under one roof. Government Influence Ghana’s government has taken a proactive interest in the telecom sector, clashing with market leader MTN Group Ltd. over its dominance even after successfully pushing for a local listing of the business. Vodafone shares rose 1.3% as 12 p.m. in London on Wednesday, while Vodacom gained 1% in Johannesburg.

[spud] 27/1/2021 11:29

O2, Three UK and Vodafone to Share 222 Rural 4G Mobile Masts Wednesday, January 27th, 2021 (7:56 am) - Score 1,104 The £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) industry project made progress today after mobile operators O2, Three UK and Vodafone reached a related agreement to both build and share 222 new 4G mobile masts, which will be used to boost mobile voice and mobile broadband coverage in rural parts of the country. In case anybody has forgotten, the SRN is an industry-led scheme that aims to help extend geographic 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by 2026 (it may also help the 5G rollout too) – supported by a public investment of £500m. The scheme essentially involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between the four operators (Vodafone, Three UK, EE [BT] and O2). NOTE: The SRN further states that it will aim to provide guaranteed coverage to an additional 280,000 UK premises, 16,000km of roads and boost ‘in car’ coverage on around 45,000 km of road, as well as better indoor coverage for around 1.2 million business premises and homes. The formal SRN agreement was officially signed off last March 2020, but since then progress has been slow and we’ve only seen a few locations being announced by the odd operator here and there (example). Suffice to say, mobile operators will have to move much faster if they are to stand any chance of meeting the aforementioned targets and that brings us to today’s development. As part of the first phase of the SRN project O2, Three UK and Vodafone have agreed to team-up in order to build and share 222 (tentative) new UK mobile masts, including 124 new sites in Scotland, 33 in Wales, 11 in Northern Ireland, and 54 in England. The construction phase for these will begin this year, although it will take until 2024 before they’re all completed. Matt Warman, UK Minister for Digital Infrastructure, said: “I’m delighted to see major progress being made to banish ‘not spots’ of poor or patchy mobile coverage. This new infrastructure will unlock the potential of rural communities in all four nations and offer greater choice of fast and reliable 4G services. As part of this new Shared Rural Network the government is also investing half a billion pounds on new masts in areas without any signal at all meaning no one is left behind.” Despite this the SRN, which is being overseen by a jointly owned company called Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, may still run into problems. In the past almost every new programme of rural mast building that we’ve ever seen has run into some problems with cost, supply (power, fibre etc.), access (wayleaves) and local opposition to related planning applications for new infrastructure. As such it’s no surprise to find that today’s announcement mentions that the “exact number and location of masts will be subject to finding suitable sites, obtaining power supply and backhaul and securing the necessary permissions through the planning system.” Many rural communities tend to cry out for mobile improvements, but at the same time not everybody wants to “see” the masts that need to be built. Unfortunately, you can’t have one without the other. However, some of these problems may well be tackled through the Government’s Mobile Planning Reforms. Nick Jeffery, CEO of Vodafone UK, said: “We know connectivity is vital and the only way to fill the holes in the UK’s mobile coverage is to work together. Our unique collaboration with O2 and Three will deliver 222 new sites in parts of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that need better connectivity. Delivering the Shared Rural Network will make a huge difference to communities across the UK.” Just to clarify. The SRN will result in every mobile operator reaching “at least” 90% of UK’s landmass, which should produce aggregate coverage of 95%. In Northern Ireland the SRN will see 4G coverage rise to at least 85% of landmass from 75%; in Scotland it will rise to at least 74% from 42%; in England it will rise from 81% to 90%; and in Wales it will rise to at least 80% from 58%. A touch confusing, but that’s mobile coverage for you. spud

[muscletrade] 27/1/2021 06:43

Bloomberg tweet. Vodafone is considering options for its Ghana business, including selling its majority stake in the unit, sources say

[nick100] 26/1/2021 07:19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NkdIfrWAY8

[spud] 25/1/2021 14:12

Virgin Media launches 5G services with Vodafone News Analysis PAUL RAINFORD, Assistant Editor, Europe 1/25/2021 Virgin Media is launching 5G services in the UK, on Vodafone's network. Those Virgin customers upgrading to 5G will be migrated to the Vodafone network; those sticking with 4G for now will remain on Virgin's mobile service that runs on EE's network until Virgin's agreement with BT Enterprise comes to an end in late 2021. Virgin anticipates that all of its mobile customers will have transferred to the Vodafone network by early 2022. Virgin's 5G services will be available in 100 UK towns and cities, with more to follow. spud

[gibbs1] 22/1/2021 16:13

Open RAN projects in line for massive German government funds: Report By Ray Le Maistre Jan 22, 2021 Germany announced a €130 billion stimulus package last June Now specific funding allocations are being made Billions of euros had been earmarked for digital technology advances The network tech fund looks set to focus on Open RAN investments News comes as Euro telco giants seek public funding for Open RAN Talk about wish fulfilment. Just as the ‘Open RAN G4’ of European telco giants were committing to deploy disaggregated radio access networks and calling for national and regional government funding to help develop a European Open RAN ecosystem, Angela Merkel’s German government was rubber-stamping a significant investment in Open RAN R&D as part of its monster economic stimulus package, according to documents seen by German business newspaper Handelsblatt. (See Euro telco giants commit to Open RAN, lobby for state support.) In June last year, the German federal government outlined its plans for a €130 billion economic stimulus package, which included billions to help Germany “go digital” – for example, €5 billion was assigned for investment in artificial intelligence (AI) projects that could help create the best research and development conditions and attract the top AI talent. Billions of euros were also assigned to eliminating “dead spots” of mobile data coverage and quantum computing efforts, while €2 billion was assigned to “testing new network technologies” for "5G and, later on, 6G" and supporting “innovative companies as they develop and test new, software-controlled network technologies.” In addition, “the plan is to facilitate market entry for such innovative network technologies.” According to Handelsblatt, that €2 billion is being targeted at Open RAN developments and spread across multiple projects managed by multiple German government bodies, including the Federal Ministry of Research, the Ministry of Transport, the Economic Department and the Ministry of the Interior. The aim is not only to position Germany at the heart of Europe’s emerging, next-generation digital communications networking ecosystem but also ensure there are plenty of supplier alternatives for the mobile operators that are increasingly reliant on a small group of vendors (mostly Ericsson and Nokia, now that Huawei has fallen out of favour and become a tainted with suspicion). The investment, if confirmed, backs up written evidence given by the Telecom Infra Project (TIP)’s Executive Director Attilio Zani to the UK government’s Science and Technology committee in late June last year that €2 billion of German federal funds from the stimulus package would be earmarked for Open RAN R&D. Such funding would be a massive boost for Europe’s mobile networking tech development sector, which currently does not have any companies to rival the likes of US firms Altiostar, Mavenir and Parallel Wireless, which have long been developing Open RAN software: Likewise, Europe is not the home of any of the chip companies (think Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx, Nvidia, Marvell) that are currently developing the hardware components that will be needed for the supporting infrastructure needed to underpin dense, urban, carrier-class Open RAN. Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone want to see a growing and healthy European Open RAN tech development scene – the German government might just get the ball rolling and set a precedent that others might follow. - Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV

[diku] 22/1/2021 09:29

It is a publicity stunt to increase their marketability profiles...

[willoicc] 21/1/2021 16:29

It's about time the BBC 'Rashforded' Rashford and his fellow highly paid Premiership footballers into reducing their huge salaries so that people did not have to pay so much to get in to see their teams play and also to reduce the amount they have to pay Sky etc to watch on TV. Then people would have more money left to feed their own kids. Have a look here to see how much it costs to attend a Premiership match. Then there is the cost of travel and snacks etc. Try that for a family of 4. See how much change you get from £200 for 90 minutes' football. hTTps://www.theukrules.co.uk/rules/sport/football/season-ticket-prices.html

[florenceorbis] 21/1/2021 14:35

Telefónica’s €7.7 billion towers sale is good news for Vodafone Avatar Written by Mary Lennighan 8 days ago Telefónica has agreed to sell its towers portfolio in Europe and Latin America to passive infrastructure specialist American Tower for €7.7 billion. The Spanish incumbent said it will sell Telxius Towers and its close to 31,000 sites in two separate transactions, one covering Europe and the other Latin America. The deal will enable it to pay down debt and focus its attention on other priorities. “After this great operation we will continue to focus on our most ambitious objectives: the integration of O2 with Virgin in the United Kingdom, the purchase of Oi mobile in Brazil and the reduction of debt,” said Telefónica chief executive José María Álvarez-Pallete, in a statement. O2 UK and Virgin Media agreed to merge last year and the deal is currently under review by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), while the three-way Oi deal – which will see Telefónica, America Movil and TIM acquire the Brazilian telco’s mobile assets – was announced in December. The reduction of debt has been an ongoing battle for Telefónica over the past few years. Deleveraging efforts have seen it sell off non-core assets in Central America and reports are intensifying that most of its other Latin American business are on the block. The company itself has indicated that its future in the region will be centred on Brazil. The telco has also previously monetised its tower assets, offloading sites in Latin America and selling chunks of Telxius to private investors, including KKR; as it stands, Telefónica owns 50.01% of the business. Telxius took over Telefónica’s towers in Germany last summer, a move that provided some financial relief for the telco. Telefónica’s net financial debt, not including lease liabilities, stood at €36.7 billion at the end of September, down by just over €2 billion from the end of 2019, but its debt-to-earnings ratio was slightly higher at 2.77x. The operator will make sizeable gains from the Telxius sale, thanks to that healthy purchase price. It estimates its capital gain from the deal at around €3.5 billion. “Once the transaction is complete, the Telefónica Group’s net financial debt will be reduced by approximately €4.6 billion and the leverage ratio (Net Debt/OIBDAaL) by approximately 0.3 times,” it said. Telxius generated an estimated OIBDAaL (operating income before depreciation and amortization, after leases) of €190 million over the past 12 months, Telefónica said. If that number is adjusted to reflect the full impact of the transfer of the German assets in June, the €7.7 billion Telxius price tag implies a 30.5 times multiple of pro forma OBIDAaL. That’s a good result by anyone’s standards, but it appears to be an accurate reflection of the way the broader market values tower assets at present. There has been much speculation over the price Vodafone will obtain for Vantage Towers when it floats in Frankfurt this year. Analysts have predicted high teens to low 20s of billions of euros, and with Telefónica bringing in €7.7 billion for Telxius, those valuations look highly attainable. Vantage Towers generated pro forma EBITDAaL of €742 million last year, including contributions from its Italian and UK towers. While its earnings metric is not directly comparable to Telefónica’s OIBDAaL, it gives us an idea of what we could be looking at. 30 times EBITDAaL would value Vantage Towers at €22 billion. We’re champing at the bit for Vodafone’s IPO information… The Telecoms.com

[florenceorbis] 21/1/2021 14:29

Https://www.thefastmode.com/technology-solutions/18882-dt-orange-telefonica-and-vodafone-join-forces-to-support-rollout-of-open-ran

[spud] 21/1/2021 14:28

BBC tries to shame Vodafone into zero-rating Bitesize Scott Bicheno Written by Scott Bicheno 1 day ago The narrative around what UK operators should do to help the common cause persists, with the BBC writing a story apparently designed to pressure Vodafone. In a piece headlined ‘Lockdown: Vodafone will not offer free access to BBC Bitesize’, the Beeb laments ‘Vodafone will not offer data-free access to BBC Bitesize during lockdowns in the UK’. It goes on to say that Vodafone had explained it wasn’t technically possible to separate the part of the BBC site devoted to helping kids with their school work from the rest of it, but then contrasts that position with that of BT, which has apparently found a way. Vodafone General Counsel and External Affairs Director Helen Lamprell was interviewed by the Beeb for the piece. “[Zero-rating educational sites] sounds simple enough to do in theory but there are a number of technical and legal challenges,” she said. “For example, if an education-resource site hosts some of its content on another platform, such as YouTube, as is often the case, we would have to zero-rate the whole of YouTube.” She added that such a thing also raises net neutrality obligations. The reporter also got a statement from BT: “We recognise that process of zero-rating a site or service, is technically difficult, and potentially costly. However, it’s not impossible and, in certain situations like this, is something we felt was worth exploring as part of our Lockdown Learning package, if only as short term measure.” There are a few major problems with this story. The first is the headline, which seems designed to position Vodafone as somehow negligent. Also, why doesn’t it mention any of the other UK operators, since only BT seems to be offering the zero rating. And then there’s the matter of net neutrality, which is largely ignored. Does zero-rating in this way, as opposed to prearranged commercial bundling, go against net neutrality? But the most annoying bit is BT’s virtue-signalling. The quote is clearly designed to imply Vodafone just can’t be bothered. Never one to miss an opportunity for lockdown brownie-points, BT sent out a press release specifically to publicise its decision to zero-rate Oak National Academy and more generally its Lockdown Learning’ support scheme. It’s great that BT is doing its bit, but why send out press releases about it? Why does anyone except those directly involved need to know? As for the Beeb, it seems to have decided to Rashford Vodafone into doing what it wants. Careful, Vodafone, if you give in to this it’s unlikely to be the last time the technique is used. spud

[nick100] 21/1/2021 05:33

https://www.ig.com/uk/news-and-trade-ideas/vodafone-shares-stabilising-but-can-drone-technology-lift-fortun-210120

[spud] 20/1/2021 14:36

US opens and immediately kicks VOD in the balls (business as usual!). spud

[plat hunter] 20/1/2021 14:29

Usually at the top of the legs

[kito19] 20/1/2021 13:36

Where do you now see the bottom?

[sparty1] 20/1/2021 11:40

well looks like I may not get 120 again. Bottom has moved up..hey hoh.

[diku] 20/1/2021 10:23

Is the clue in there somewhere...more recommendations = price not going up?...every man and his donkey has a Buy recommendation on it!... Among the analysts covering Vodafone, there are currently: 9 Buy recommendations 1 Hold recommendations 0 Sell recommendations

[sparty1] 19/1/2021 16:23

God ,the madman speaks. !sparty has not one single aim listed stock. Fact! The number of stocks I currently own is more than your braincells, ie 1 Not taking the tablets are you George. Very naughty.

[gregmorg] 19/1/2021 16:05

well I can only hope that Jefferies price target actually happens. This stock has been a consistent terrible performer in my pension portfolio. Every and each CEO who comes in finds a trash can to dump all sorts of asset in it although the last one in seems intent on also dumping the long suffering shareholders in the same trash can! This thing really has gone nowhere to backwards year after year. It's so frustrating. Will it ever turn around!

[sparty1] 19/1/2021 15:22

come on down baby...I`ve got cash waiting..