Vodafone Portugal - a subsidiary of British mobile phone giant
Vodafone Group Plc
(
VOD
) - announced plans to monitor the communications networks of
U.K. and Ireland. The unit is currently looking after the Spain
network.
In July, this year, the Operation Centre in Portugal started
supervising the networks of Spain. Soon in October, the company
added the monitoring of the access network in U.K. Vodafone
Portugal would start inspecting the core network and services in
Ireland by March 2013.
Based in Newbury, United Kingdom, Vodafone Group is the world's
largest revenue generating wireless communications operator and
the second largest carrier after
China Mobile Limited
(
CHL
) based on subscriber count.
Vodafone - which enjoys strong presence in Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States - is capturing
more markets due to the strong adoption of data services and
migration to smartphones.
We believe that Vodafone's future growth hinges on strategic
components including increasing mobile data services as well as
boosting growth in enterprise segments by implementing converged
fixed and mobile services (Vodafone One Net)
Expanding in new areas including machine-to-machine, near-field
communications and mobile financial services along with
maintaining liquid investment in quality networks will likely
enhance the company's profitability in the coming quarters.
Vodafone also has a strong balance sheet and is one of the top
dividend payers in the industry.
However, we prefer to stay on the sidelines following the weak
results in the first half of fiscal year 2013. Half-yearly
consolidated revenue was £21.78 billion ($34.5 billion),
representing a year-over-year and organic drop of 7.4% and 0.2%,
respectively. Challenging conditions in southern Europe
that intensified following threats of recession due to the
sovereign debt crisis affected the results.
Moreover, harsh regulatory terms and stiff competition will
continue to dampen service revenue and subscriber count in the
coming days.
Vodafone currently holds a Zacks #3 Rank, which implies a
short-term Hold rating. We also maintain a long-term Neutral
recommendation on the stock.
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VODAFONE GP PLC (VOD): Free Stock Analysis
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