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Business: Mobiles Price War ; British Company Link Up to Chinese Giants

Posted on: Thursday, 16 February 2006, 06:00 CST

MOBILE giants Vodafone yesterday announced a deal to sell their own-brand phones on the consumer market for the first time.

They said it would enable them to offer phones to customers at more competitive prices.

They have teamed up with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies to supply Vodafone-branded 3G handsets across 21 countries from September.

The agreement marks Huawei's first significant entry into the European handset market.

Last summer, they were interested in taking over telecoms equipment group Marconi for about pounds 600million before Swedish firm Ericsson acquired most of the company's assets.

Ping Guo, Huawei's senior vice president, said the deal would enable them to become one of the world's leading players in handset development.

Vodafone operate on 3G phones made by industry players such as Nokia and Motorola, which customers usually pay for in a single payment of pounds 100 upwards or in monthly instalments.

Vodafone serve 179million customers in more than 50 countries.

A spokesman said: "Operators are increasingly trying to 'own' their customers because otherwise the only connection they have with them is through billing.

"It's a step towards being more involved with the customer from when they enter a Vodafone shop through to whenever they use their phone."

Vodafone plan to keep links to other manufacturers to maintain customer choice.

Source: Daily Record; Glasgow (UK)

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