Vodafone touts enterprise opportunities

Telco looking to steal a greater share of the enterprise market as it trims its losses.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia is looking to steal a greater share of the enterprise market from its rivals and doesn’t see its lack of fixed assets as an impediment to its overall ambitions.

While the mobile operator has predominantly focused on the consumer market, Vodafone Australia chief executive Inaki Berroeta said that the time was right for the operator to make further inroads in the enterprise space.

“It’s an area of growth for us given how much appetite there is in the market, so there’s a huge opportunity for us especially in the small to medium space.” he said.

The telco has flagged increased investment in its sales and support teams for its enterprise clients and played down suggestions that its lack of fixed assets is holding it back for now.

Vodafone pointed to its recent partnership with Qantas as a sign of things to come with the telco’s enterprise business executive general manager Stuart Kelly saying the deal showcased Vodafone’s overall prowess as a mobile provider.

Qantas signed up Vodafone as its mobile partner in February replacing Telstra and Optus as mobile services providers. Under the terms of the partnership, customers can earn Qantas Points through their Vodafone mobile plans. The partnership also sees international customers travelling to Australia on eligible Qantas flights offered a prepaid SIM, and a smartphone plus SIM package.

“We started the discussion a year ago and it really came about on the back of our roaming proposition,’ Mr Berroeta said.

With Vodafone’s rivals looking to pump more into their respective networks and investing heavily in content, in the case of Optus, Mr Berroeta isn’t convinced that exclusive content rights are the way to go when it comes to winning market share.

“It’s extremely expensive and difficult to monetise unless you are making the content yourself,” he said.

“And if you are spending all this money in content then maybe you are not spending it somewhere else in your network.”

The comments came as part of Vodafone’s midyear briefing to the market amid signs that the mobile operator has consolidated its position in the market.

“July was our best commercial month in the market ever,” Me Berroeta said.

Vodafone continues to trim its losses with the telco reducing its loss to $137 million in the half-year to June 30 2016. It has also managed to increase its overall customer base to 5.5 million in the period.