By Simon Zekaria
LONDON--Vodafone Group PLC said Tuesday it is confident it will
turn around the fortunes of its business in the U.K., which has
seen low profitability under stiff competition.
Vodafone's U.K. Chief Executive Jeroen Hoencamp said he expects
to return the business to growth, in both profit and revenue terms,
in the next 18 to 24 months.
"I am very confident," said Mr. Hoencamp. "We can turn it
around."
Vodafone, which also has a significant enterprise business in
the country, provides mobile services in the U.K., competing with
EE--a mobile joint venture between Orange SA and Deutsche Telekom
AG, Telefonica's O2 and Hutchison Whampoa's Three.
Vodafone, the world's second-largest mobile operator by number
of subscribers after China Mobile Inc., is building out its network
and rolling out new stores in the U.K. to win more subscribers.
Vodafone also says it is ready to compete in the U.K.'s
developing "quad-play" consumer space of mobile, fixed-line
telephony, broadband and television services, even if it says the
market isn't developed yet.
Vodafone has "not seen real evidence" of developed quad-play in
the market, said Mr. Hoencamp.
Other operators like satellite giant British Sky Broadcasting
Group PLC and the U.K.'s telecom incumbent BT Group PLC currently
offer "triple-play" consumer services, but not mobile. Liberty
Global's Virgin Media does compete in each of the four spaces.
BT plans to offer a consumer mobile service as part of a bundled
package of its other products by April next year.
Vodafone has spent billions of dollars on fixed-line cable
assets in Germany and Spain to ramp up its quad-play strategy in
those markets as it seeks to shore up flagging wireless
operations.
Write to Simon Zekaria at simon.zekaria@wsj.com
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