Vodafone 2007 Annual Report Download - page 16

14 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2007
Business Overview
continued
What We Offer Our Customers
Vodafone offers a wide variety of products and services
to its customers. Traditionally, this has been through
the provision of voice services allowing customers to
make and receive calls whilst at home and abroad.
Messaging services are also offered which allow
customers to send and receive SMS and MMS
messages and, more recently, email and instant
messaging services have been provided in a number of
the Group’s operations.
Various data services are now provided in many of the
Group’s operations, allowing customers to access
internet services, watch mobile TV and download
games, ringtones, music and other content onto their
mobile phones, while Vodafone Mobile Connect data
cards allow people to access the internet, corporate
intranets and their emails whilst on the move using
their notebooks. During the current financial year, the
Group has been executing on its total communications
strategy through fixed location based services,
enhanced mobile data and internet services, and
DSL offerings.
Voice services
Voice services continue to make up the largest portion of the Group’s
revenue. The Group has undertaken a wide range of activities to stimulate
growth in voice usage in the past year. These activities range from
improvements of basic tariff designs to launching differentiated voice
offerings such as Vodafone At Home, which is described in more detail below.
Voice minutes usage growth for the Group’s principal mobile markets(1)
Outgoing (billions of minutes)
Incoming (billions of minutes)
Note:
(1) Total statutory voice minutes per year for Germany, Italy, Spain and UK.
A continuing increase in the level of competition and further pressure on
voice prices in the Western European markets have challenged the Group to
be innovative in ways to deliver more value for money to customers. By
introducing voice offerings that enable customers to significantly increase
their usage whilst only having to commit to a small incremental fee, the
Group has strengthened the role of the mobile as a primary method of
telecommunication.
Customers now have more freedom to use their mobile in ways that offer them
more value depending on their particular communication needs.
Differentiated, targeted tariffs launched in local markets include offers such as
closed user group calling for business customers and designated free numbers
or family offers for consumer customers. The launch of new, low-end contract
offers has unlocked increased voice usage through lower rates per minute.
In emerging markets the Group has seen the positive development of voice
usage, which is partly driven by economic growth and is partly the result of
providing mobile communication to a wider population through improved
entry level offers. The majority of the Group’s customers in these regions use
prepaid services. In order to deliver more value to customers, the Group has
offered different promotions that reward frequent or high credit top-ups. In
emerging markets with limited fixed infrastructure, mobile phones are often
the only telecommunications option. Here the Group seeks to continue to
improve its service offerings, making services more broadly available and
encouraging greater use.
Fixed location based services
The Group is delivering on customers’ total communications needs and
driving greater voice usage through offering integrated communications
services.
Vodafone At Home
Vodafone At Home comprises a range of offers designed to introduce
Vodafone into the household as a total communications provider. Vodafone
At Home voice propositions offer customers the opportunity to satisfy their
communication needs through one operator and with a single device.
Vodafone At Home voice offerings include zonal tariff and fixed line
telephony and had 3.25 million customers as at 31 March 2007. With a zonal
tariff the customer can make calls from a defined Vodafone At Home
geographical area to fixed line numbers and, depending on the offer, other
destinations (for example on Vodafone mobile networks), at rates similar to
fixed line providers. In addition, the customers obtain a fixed line number to
enable them to receive incoming calls when within the Vodafone At Home
geographical area. At 31 March 2007, zonal tariffs had been launched in five
markets – Germany, Italy, France, Hungary and Portugal.
Fixed line telephony offers a customer traditional fixed line calls via public
switched telephone networks (“PSTN”). At 31 March 2007, this offer had been
launched in two markets; in the UK as part of the DSL offering and in
New Zealand.
Vodafone Office
Vodafone Office is the umbrella name for a series of products and services
designed to meet all our business customers’ communications needs.
Vodafone Wireless Office provides companies the opportunity to reduce their
number of fixed desk phones, facilitating the transfer of voice minutes from
the fixed to the mobile network. The solution includes a closed user group
tariff, allowing employees to call each other for a flat monthly fee. In three
markets, Germany, Spain and Portugal, the offer has been expanded to
include location-based office-zone charging, giving preferential rates when
calling from an office location. Additionally, in these markets, geographic
numbers have been introduced, enabling further fixed mobile substitution.
At 31 March 2007, Vodafone Wireless Office was available in 14 markets and
had over two million customers.
Analysis of Group revenue (%)
2007 2006
Messaging
Data
Fixed line & DSL
Voice
78
79
55
54
12 12
50 60 70 80 90
2007
2006
2005 61.2
70.9
87.9
20 25 30 35 40
2007
2006
2005 32.2
35.1
37.4