Thursday, October 12, 2006

Vodafone dumps Carphone Warehouse

In an article reported by Tony Dennis at the Inquirer, Vodafone today announced it has cancelled it’s contract with retail outlet Carphone Warehouse, who has become increasingly aggressive in delivering mobile services as well as fixed-line broadband.

The deal, announced today, severs ties between Vodafone and CPW, and announces a new partnership between Voda and Phones 4U, a retailer with more than 300 outlets across the UK.

The announcement comes on the heels of Carphone unveils ‘free’ broadband)

For it's part, recall that on Sep 11th Vodafone announced that it was entering the UK fixed line broadband market after striking a deal with BT (Voda makes UK broadband move).

Why is this interesting for UMA?

Well, it serves to highlight just how important mobile and fixed broadband technologies are for mobile service providers going forward. As a mobile retail outlet for Voda, CPW is not a threat. But their aggressive moves into the fixed line broadband market, and Voda’s equally aggressive response, show that the convergence of fixed and mobile is the new battle ground in subscriber ownership.

Tell me what you think...

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