Jeremy Green
An integrated proposition from Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK today announced an 'integrated' communications proposition aimed at the SME market, incorporating fixed, mobile and broadband. Comment: When Vodafone first briefed us on its 'Total Communications Service for Business' over three weeks ago, it was under embargo. At first sight, it's hard to see why. By Vodafone's own admission, the package contains little that is new. The company has been reselling Viatel's DSL for around two years. Its fixed offering is based on reselling Energis, and that isn't new either. Indeed, it claims to have several thousand customers for both services. Nor is the announcement about closer integration of fixed and mobile offers. Although Vodafone aspires to offer companies a single bill, this isn't possible at the moment, due to the constraints of existing billing systems. Vodafone won't be actively publicising the integrated offer either, preferring to rely on "below the line" marketing, including direct mail and account manager activity. It will still lead with the mobile aspects of the offer - branded as "Mobility Solutions for Business". In the words of a Vodafone spokesperson, 'we are not losing customers because we haven't shouted "fixed" from the rooftop'. So what is behind this move? Perhaps a need to show the investment community that Vodafone is not a one-trick pony, and that it too can play in the all-important converged space. To date, Vodafone has shown little of its hand in regard to its strategy for convergence. It has remained fairly sceptical about some of the prospects for technology-based convergence, even as its integrated operator competitors, with France Telecom/Orange leading the pack, are making much of their own abilities to meet all of the customers' needs. BT, ostensibly Vodafone's partner for convergence, is rolling out enterprise-oriented integrated and converged products, and announcing more. Vodafone's integrated offer is a UK-only product, not a Vodafone Group one. It's based on the resale of wholesale products - Vodafone's partnership with BT seems to be a wholly one-way phenomenon at the moment. If the point is to demonstrate that the company also has a convergence strategy, it will have to try harder than this.
