Vodafone Group, the second largest telecom operator in terms of mobile subscribers, today said it launched 5G services in 97 cities across 8 European markets.
Vodafone in December inked a deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the #1 cloud services provider, to support mobile edge computing services by deploying AWS Wavelength solutions at the edge of Vodafone’s 5G networks.
The new services will help support artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, video analytics, autonomous vehicles, robotics and drone control, and will generate incremental revenues for Vodafone Group.
Vodafone’s Internet of Things (IoT) added 19.5 million new SIM connections during the financial year. Vodafone’s IoT connections support industries including car manufacturers, logistics, energy and healthcare. Vodafone’s business customers contribute 28 percent to its total service revenue.
Achievements
Vodafone’s mobile contract customers in Europe increased to 64.4 million from 63.2 million.
Vodafone’s broadband customers in Europe increased to 25 million 18.8 million.
Vodafone’s on-net Gigabit capable connections in Europe increased to 31.9 million 21.9 million.
Vodafone’s consumer converged customers in Europe increased to 7.2 million from 6.6 million.
Vodafone’s mobile contract customer churn in Europe fell to 14.6 percent from 15.5 percent.
Vodafone’s data users in Africa increased to 82.6 million from 75.6 million.
Vodafone said its M-Pesa transaction volume increased to 12.2 billion from 11 billion.
Vodafone’s IoT SIM connections grew to 102.9 million from 84.9 million.
Update on Vodafone network
Vodafone signed network sharing deals including: Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Telecom Italia in Italy, Orange in Spain and Romania, Telefonica in the UK and Wind in Greece. These network sharing deals support improved mobile coverage in rural areas, increase the pace of 5G network deployment and generate significant cost savings.
Vodafone’s NGN fixed-line network, which is the largest in Europe, covers 136 million households. This provides Vodafone with a significant opportunity to capture market share gains and increase average revenue as customers move from legacy Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) to Gigabit capable technologies.
Vodafone aims to deliver Gigabit speeds to approximately 50 million homes across Europe on its own network by fiscal 2023.
Vodafone’s subscription-based television distribution business in Europe has over 22 million active customer subscriptions.
