Vodafone accused of massaging UK figures

It's not clear exactly how long this practice has been going on for. The company told The Mail on Sunday that the offer was an "experiment in parts of London for contract customers. It may be rolled out nationwide."

To test the rumour, the newspaper sent a reporter to a Vodafone store in London's West end. A member of staff told the reporter that the giveaway was "to boost customer numbers."

The aim is to count the free handsets and free SIM cards as new subscribers. One industry analyst noted that it might explain why Vodafone did so well in the last quarter of 2006-2007 when everybody else did badly.

O2 has a deliberate policy of doing the exact opposite. It labels customers who use a free SIM card and then discard it as 'spinners'. Many cellular subscribers buy a new pre-paid handset; use the free minutes; then install their old SIM card.

Back in 2005, O2's CEO - Peter Erskine - claimed his company had identified 0.25 million spinners and wasn't counting them as real customers.

The speculation is that Vodafone is under pressure to do well to stave off protests fro activist shareholders. One of them, John Mayo, wants Vodafone to get rid of its holding in Verizon Wireless.

The INQ has always found it bizarre that a GSM based operator like Vodafone doesn't have a partner GSM network in the USA.

The Mail on Sunday also reports that T-Mobile UK has increased the price of pre-pay calls by three pence to its customers. The move is thought to be the first price increase ever within the UK cellular industry. µ

L'INQ
Financial Mail