Vodafone and the Global Communications Network
For this week’s blog I’ve decided to look at Vodafone, and their global communications network. Vodafone Group describes itself as “the world’s leading mobile telecommunications company” (Vodafone, 2009). The group has 315 million customers (at 30th June 2009). The company has a number of subsidiaries and joint venture with other telecommunications businesses worldwide. The company describes itself as this: “Mobile is always at the heart of what we do, but now we are moving into integrated mobile and PC communication services. We are doing that in two ways – wirelessly through 3G and HSDPA (High-Speed Download Packet Access), but also using fixed line broadband services like DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).” (Vodafone, 2009)
The links below show Vodafone Group’s subsidiaries, partner markets, and affiliates in each of the global regions.
As you can probably see by the above links, the network is quite large spanning many countries worldwide. The image below, in comparison, shows Vodafone Australia’s capabilities for International roaming on post pay plans.
As you will notice the network of available roaming countries is even larger than the formal Vodafone network. Take particular note of South America, a continent where Vodafone has few formal arrangements, and the difference between Vodafone’s roaming network compared to the formal Vodafone network. I think this really exemplifies the saturation of mobile communication networks globally.
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