australian financial review article (11/04/14), page-14

VODAFONE Australia’s new chief executive has signalled a fresh era of competition for the nation’s mobile-phone-loving customers, declaring that the company is ready to lure back customers from its rivals with better value plans and data offers.

In his first public appearance since joining the telco 60 days ago, Vodafone’s new chief, Inaki Berroeta, said that after two years of repairing its damaged brand the mobile operator was poised to start winning customers again.

“The only way to get out of our stigma is to build the network like the one we have today,” he said.

“We have a very good network, we have improved our service dramatically, we have good stores so (an increase in customer numbers) is something that will come.”

Mr Berroeta highlighted the progress that Vodafone has made in upgrading its mobile network to the new, superfast 4G standard, which he said would once again position Vodafone as a serious competitor to Telstra and Optus.

In the past year the telco has expanded its 3G mobile phone coverage to 96 per cent of the population, signed on one million 4G subscribers and built out 1200 4G sites around the nation.

The progress is critically important for Vodafone which has bled more than two million customers and close to $1 billion since late 2010 when a series of network meltdowns and privacy breaches demolished the company’s once good name.

Since that time more than $2bn has been spent to repair ­Vodafone’s 3G network as well as build out its new 4G network and restore the telco’s reputation.

While the financial and customer numbers have continued going backwards, the telco has almost staunched its mobile customer bleed.

In the three months to December 31 it reduced subscriber defections from almost 600,000 in the previous quarter to 22,000.

Mr Berroeta said the stigma of being the nation’s worst mobile operator was showing signs of a reversal.

He said Vodafone would continue to target customers by offering better value than its competitors on download quotas as well as continuing moves to cut the cost of global roaming.

“I am very confident about the business. We are very close to becoming a positive business again. We have a brand new 4G network with 1 million customers,” he said.

Mr Berroeta’s declarations were backed by his chief technology officer, Benoit Hanssen, who said the mobile operator’s network had undergone a revamp that meant it would not again suffer from the network meltdowns that severely damaged Vodafone’s brand.

“No way history is going to repeat itself,” Mr Hanssen said.

“We have completed a phase of consolidation to upgrade the core network to provide fully for 4G services for years to come in terms of capacity.”