vodafone chief plays it coy on recovery, page-2

I know that criticism is not happily received on HC ... so brace yourselves.

I run both a Vodafone account and a Telstra account.

*Telstra is better but not by a whole lot ... the difference between the two networks regards coverage is not that big.

*The main difference is in reliability ... by my experience.

Last year, I complained at length with Vodafone regards my broadband service. I learned a lot about their internal process along the way. The tower which was the primary server for my area was a long standing 'red flag' issue. It was low on the list for maintenance because it was not recording a high hit rate for complaints. That said, about 2 months later the service dramatically improved for me and my broadband performed excellently.

Now, about 8 months later, it is again running like a sick dog [constantly dropping out and running slow].

Maintaining the network is, I suspect, a high cost endeavour; .... failing electronics must be a constant problem. Vodafone just does not seem to keep on top of it. I do not notice this feature in regards to Telstra.

Reported today is Optus' intention to start a price war on data to win some customers from Telstra. Maybe Vodafone will have to do likewise. Bottom line, a price war will further erode Vodafone's free cash flow and things like maintenance will be a continuing casualty.

HTA was my very first stock .... So I continue to maintain an interest. I do not see how they can ever escape their central ongoing problem ... they have never achieved the 'critical mass' which would place them into a free cash flow situation. My personal experience is only anecdotal but I suspect it is common to many others.