Vodafone is expected to announce a huge increase in dividend payments when it unveils half-year profits on Tuesday. Analysts believe that new chief executive Arun Sarin will increase dividends by as much as 30% a share for the current financial year. Sarin, who took over from Sir Christopher Gent after the group’s annual meeting in July, is also expected to give further details on the launch of Vodafone’s 3G mobile service.
Vodafone K.K. announced today that from December 1 it will offer “Vodafone Happy Packet”, a new discount service for packet data communications that makes Vodafone live! for PDC (2.5G) customers even easier to use with savings of up to 80%. Two types of Vodafone Happy Packet discounts will be available—Super (fixed monthly charge of 2,950 yen and 80% off) and Regular (fixed monthly charge of 1,200 yen and approximately 66% off). In addition, all of the fixed monthly charge can be used as a free charge allowance towards packet communications like Super Mail, web browsing, and Sky Mail (SMS) and voice communications as well. At a later date, Vodafone K.K. plans to separately announce details on a packet data communications discount for its Vodafone Global Standard 3G service.
Vodafone has placed orders for millions of next generation mobile phones for its new 3G services with Japanese manufacturers, in a snub to Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer. According to a senior Vodafone executive, Nokia did not yet have handheld devices with the functions he wanted. “Nokia is developing an elaborate system,” he said. “But they are behind the Japanese.” He would not name the Japanese recipients of the orders, claiming commercial sensitivity.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s leading mobile communications provider, and COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications S.A., the leading mobile operator in Greece, announce today that they have formed an exclusive strategic partnership agreement under which DoCoMo is licensing COSMOTE to launch i-modeｮ, the world’s most popular mobile service, in Greece. The two leading mobile operators have signed today an agreement, under which COSMOTE will offer its i-mode service over its 2.5G GPRS network and 3G UMTS network, with DoCoMo providing its know-how, technology and patents.
SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s top mobile carrier, may be named an “unreliable listed company” after it missed the deadline for issuing a public notice. On the evening of Oct. 31, SK Telecom, the second most valuable stock on the Seoul bourse, quietly announced it had been sued by its rival KTF Co. for allegedly defaming the rival’s corporate integrity.
Just as we thought things are gearing up this month, Japan’s number one and two carriers have really pulled some goodies out of their bag. We’ve already talked about KDDI and flat fees, but this week’s subject is profits for the carriers and a grab bag of gains for subscribers. If ever there was a reason not to keep your eyes fixed on Japan’s wireless communications, we’d like to know. DoCoMo trumped itself recently announcing profits, Felicia Mobile commerce with Sony, and now (finally) some concrete plans to expand i-mode. We have the innards of DoCoMo’s recent press conference up for you in this week’s WWJ video program here.
