~~~ Vodafone History ~~~

Vodafone is the largest mobile network provider in the UK and it's headquarters is based in Newbury, Berkshire close to junction 13 of the M4, which is home to over 6000 employees.

Back in 1983, a small electronics firm called Racal teamed up with an American telecoms company and together they bid (and won) one of the 2 mobile phone operators licenses which were put up for grabs by the government.

Vodafone was launched 2 years later in 1985 - the name of the other company was Cellnet (later renamed BT Cellnet).

In 1993 a new boy arrived on the block called One-2-One, prompting Vodafone to look beyond the UK to increase it's revenue and co-inciding with the launch of digital technology or GSM as it is referred to now.

The next 6 years saw Vodafone buying out smaller operators and spreading it's tentacles around the globe to bring it where it is today -
- 165 million customers worldwide
- over 15 million UK customers
- market value of £94 billion
- employing over 60,000 staff
Vodafone is listed on the UK Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.

~~~ The Jargon Explained ~~~

You might find it useful to understand some of the terminology used in the mobile phone industry, if for no other reason than to stop you getting fobbed off the next time you ring customer services to complain !

So here's a list of useful terms :-
Handset - your phone
Subscriber - that's you, the customer
Subscriber Number - that's you again, your phone number
IMEI - the unique number that identifies your "handset"
SIM card - the small plastic card under the battery which stores
all your details
GPRS - the ability to send "data" to and from your handset
MMS - picture message
SMS - test message
Provisioning - the act of changing some aspect of your
telephone service e.g. add "GPRS" to your "SIM
card"
Service Provider - the company who sends you your bill
Network Provider - the company who provides the airtime to
your Service Provider (these may be the same)
Vodafone Live - access to the internet/WAP (ringtones, games,
pictures,etc)
VT - Video Telephony (video calling)
3G - third generation services (videos, VT)
Locked handset - a handset which can only be used on the
network that originally sold the handset
PAYT - Pay As You Talk (pre-pay, pay as you go)
Roaming - using your phone abroad (or on a different network
to that which you are subscribed).

~~~ Where To Buy ~~~

You can become a Vodafone customer in one of 2 main ways :-
- by buying from a Vodafone shop or it's website
- by buying from a "service provider" who is selling Vodafone
products (known as "airtime")

Ask yourself this question - would you buy a holiday from
"JoeBloggsHolidays" for £650, or would you rather cut out the middleman and pay less from the main dealer ? - enough said.

There are lots of attractive deals available but I would urge anybody to read the smallprint as there are many companies selling Vodafone products and services which you could get cheaper direct from Vodafone itself. The usual trick is to offer "half-price" line rental for so many months, followed by full-price line rental which makes up for the earlier discount and then some !

If you use a Vodafone shop on the high street then I'd suggest that you avoid lunchtimes and Saturday mornings as this is their busiest period and you may find yourself waiting a long time to get served. This is partly due to the enormous amount of paperwork required when a new phone is bought (and partly due to the enormous hangover most of the spotty
teenage shop assistants have acquired the night before).

You often find better deals in the shops too - I bought a Pay As You Talk phone the other week and the shop had £20 off for that day only on all phones, so it's worth looking around.

When you leave the shop, you should have a phone which can be turned on and used straight away - I'd suggest that you do this BEFORE you leave the shop by asking the assistant to turn it on for you and checking that you can (a) get a signal, (b) make a call, (c) get onto "Vodafone Live" if your handset supports it.
By doing this you will save yourself having to make a second foray into the shop later on.

The Vodafone website is useful to see which phones and deals are available but you may find that the prices are higher than the shops for most phones.

A useful piece of information is that Vodafone owns around 80% of all companies that sells it's products - for example Singlepoint4U and CarphoneWarehouse are owned by Vodafone.

~~~ Pay As You Talk Deals ~~~

The following tariffs are currently available for PAYT customers :-
SMARTSTEP
Vodafone to Vodafone - 30p for first 3mins of each day, then
5p/min thereafter
To other networks - 35p/min at all times
SMS - 12p for first 3 of each day, then 9p each thereafter
MMS - 36p
Video Call (VT) - 35p/min
You can add "Vodafone Passport to this price plan.

SMARTSTEP PLUS
Vodafone to Vodafone - 30p peak, 5p off-peak
To other networks - 35p/min at all times
SMS - 12p each
MMS - 36p
Video Call (VT) - 35p/min
You can add "Vodafone Passport" to this price plan.
You can add "Stop The Clock" to this price plan.

Vodafone Passport - this is useful if you go abroad as you pay 75p each time you make a call and then you pay your normal pence/min as if you were in the UK. This can significantly reduce the cost of your calls from abroad.

Stop The Clock (STC) - you only pay for the first 3 minutes of any call after 7pm until 7am. The remaining 57 minutes of any hour is then totally free ! (no catch). If your call lasts for more than 1 hour then you start to pay your normal pence/min for each minute you go over.

Normally, with PAYT deals, you pay much more for your handset - this is because the companies who make the handsets (Nokia, Motorola, etc) normally take a chunk of the monthly subscription fees to cover the cost of
the handset. But with PAYT you don't pay a monthly fee so you have to pay for the handset up front.

~~~ Contract Deals ~~~

Vodafone recently launched it's "Perfect Fit" tariffs, which allows
customers to tailor what they pat for based on how they use their phone.
The customer chooses from one of the ANYTIME options and then chooses an "optional extra".
For example, you may choose ANYTIME 200 at £30/month and then pay an additional £6/month for your "optional extra" pack to get SMS and MMS cheaper.

ANYTIME (25, 75, 125, 200, 275, 350, 500, 700, 1000)
Line rental - £15, £20, £25, £30, £25, £40, £50, £60, £75/month
(includes free calls anytime of the day - see note below)
Vodafone to Vodafone - 15p/min (or 12p/min if you choose
ANYTIME 200 or higher)
Other networks - 40p/min (or 35p/min if you choose ANYTIME
200 or higher)
SMS - 12p
MMS - 36p
Video calling (VT) - 35p/min

The ANYTIME tariffs include a number (in brackets above) of minutes worth of calls in the line rental - so if you are on ANYTIME 25, you would get 25 minutes of calls included in your £15/month line rental, after which you would pay the charges listed above. The line rental increases with the number of free minutes you choose.
Any unused minutes are automatically carried over to the following month - you can stack up 3 months worth of entitlement before you start to lose them. This is called your "bundle".

You can also pay for an "optional extra" pack to make texts cheaper :-
Pay £3 - get 50 SMS or 16 MMS picture messages
Pay £6 - get 100 SMS or 33 MMS picture messages
Pay £14 - get 250 SMS or 83 MMS picture messages
Pay £25 - get 500 SMS or 166 MMS picture messages
Pay £40 - get 1000 SMS or 333 MMS picture messages

You just have to work out how much you use your phone and plump for the tariff which covers the number of calls and texts that you normally use and you should be better off.

~~~ Other Stuff ~~~

I won't dwell on Vodafone's other products but as well as your basic price plans above, you can also set up Voicemail, call diverts, use a text bureau rather than send an sms yourself.

They sell mobile connect cards so that you can connect to the internet from your PCwithout any wires whatsoever - you just use the airwaves.

They also do a wide range of accessories for most phones and in-car kits.

~~~ Going Abroad ~~~

Most people avoid using a mobile phone abroad because of the
potentially high costs involved which is mainly due to the network operators charging for using each other's airtime. BT is also guilty of this.
But now, you can use the "Vodafone Passport" (sometimes called "Vodafone Promise") to reduce phone costs abroad.
Simply call Customer Services or walk into a Vodafone shop and they will add "VP" to your phone - this allows you to pay only 75p per call plus your normal UK call charges for each minute of the call.
In effect, you are paying 75p to take your home tariff abroad with you.
There is no recurring charge for VP - you only pay the 75p per call if you are abroad.
Of course, this means that your Mum can ring to make sure you're tucked up in bed (alone) at 10:30 every night .........

Another option available to you is International Call Saver - this
costs £2.50 per month and greatly reduces the costs of calls from most European countries. This is ideally suited to people who travel abroad regularly as it is a recurring charge.

Be aware that almost all phones have a "roaming bar" imposed when they leave the factory which stops anyone making international calls - just in case your phone is stolen.
So if you are planning to go abroad, call Customer Services who can remove the bar almost instantly.

~~~ Charity ~~~

Most people are not aware of the charitable donations made by Vodafone
The company raises awareness of (and money for) many charities which tend to get forgotten such as :-
- Whizz Kidz (helps disabled kids to become mobile)
- NAS (National Autistic Society
(Send a text to 22322 to donate £2 to NAS now !)
- SHELTER (helping the homeless)
- Samaritans (needs no explanation)
- YouthNet UK (supporting teenagers with all kinds of
problems)

Vodafone encourages all it's employees to give to charity - if an
employee raises money in an organized event then Vodafone will donate a matching amount - this can be anything from a sponsored 5 day cycle ride to Paris or just a school fete - there are no exclusions.
In addition, all employees are allowed to take 3 days off work (paid) each year to take part in charitable events.

More recently, Vodafone responded to the Tsunami disaster in Asia by encouraging every employee to give money to the Disasters Emergeny Committee (DEC) fund via it's payroll department within days of the catastrophe occurring and I know that many people in Newbury did so.

In the aftermath of the London bombings, Vodafone operated a dedicated helpline for families worried about their loved ones and dedicated the majority of it's network for use by the emergency services in London.

Vodafone doesn't advertise these things, or use them to justify
building a new phone mast - it just does it silently, in the background.

~~~ Useful numbers ~~~

Dial these numbers from your handset :-
PAYT helpline - 191
PAYT credit line - 2345
Customer Services - 191
Scoot - 333 (access to local services - plumber, taxi, etc)
Directory Enquiries - 192
Voicemail - 121 (call 1221 to get this set up if you don't have it)

To find out what your handset number is dial *#100# (star, hash, one hundred, hash) from your phone and your number will be displayed.

If you are unsure as to which number you should dial just call Customer Services on 191 from your mobile (it's free) and they should be able to help you.

~~~ What Vodafone Does Best ~~~

Vodafone boasts 96% coverage in the UK and I must admit, I have never had a problem with lack of coverage since being with Vodafone.
I HAVE had problems with certain handsets not getting a signal though - I had a Nokia 7600 which had no signal in my house, yet my Nokia 6210 had a very strong signal.
So the next time you lose a signal, just be sure it isn't your phone before cursing the network !
Vodafone was voted "best network" this year meaning that your calls are most likely to be connected to the number you have dialled if you are on Vodafone's network and you are least likely to have your call terminated mid-conversation.
So a big thumbs up for the actual network quality.

Vodafone take the enviroment seriously and have adopted many "green" working practises such as recycling old phones and equipment and encouraging it's staff to use alternatives to the motor car. For example, in Newbury, staff are encouraged to cycle or use the public buses which are subsidised and therefore free to all Vodafone staff.
How many other employers can say the same ?
Many of the masts erected by Vodafone use existing structures or share locations with other telecoms companies - 65% of Vodafone masts are co-located in this way.
There are even masts disguised as trees to "blend in" with the local area.

Customer services used to be a very traumatic experience for many of Vodafone's customers and I'm sure that there will always be people who have a bad experience still - but over the past few years the company has invested a lot of time, money and training in improving it's services so hopefully your chances of being fobbed off are getting less.

I've already mentioned the numerous ways in which Vodafone gives to charity - something you don't expect of large corporations but Vodafone manages to find the time and money to continue supporting good causes.

~~~ What It Doesn't Do Very Well ~~~

There is only one area which I really think Vodafone could improve - and that is TV advertising.
Vodafone has a history of poor TV adverts and it's latest promotions for "Stop The Clock" are no exception. These are the ones where Son calls dad to say "I'm gay", and Dad curtly replies "oh, okay" before ending the call - the inference is that it's too expensive to keep talking unless you switch to STC where you get 57 minutes of every hour free.
The product is fantastic, but the advert just fails to inspire.

Vodafone have invested heavily in advertsing at major sporting events - the grand prix, cricket and Manchester United - at the expense of TV.

Even bringing back Beckham is no match for the "Orange Guru" ads.

~~~ Conclusion ~~~

You either love them or hate them, but Vodafone are likely to dominate the mobile phone market for some time to come.
I've tried 3 of the other networks in the past and I'll be sticking
with Vodafone from now on, mainly due to easy tarrifs, good products, excellent network coverage - and I like the colour red.
Hopefully, if you've managed to read this epic, you'll have a better insight into the company than perhaps you did before.

Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer - the views and facts above are my own interpretation of the Vodafone company, products and services which may not be entirely 100% accurate - but they're probably pretty close.