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Vodafone Will Offer Wired Broadband in UK

Red Herring reports that faced with rapidly maturing mobile markets in Europe, Vodafone, one of the world�s largest cell phone service operators, said it will extend its franchise beyond the mobile market and into the 'higher-margin' broadband market. In the same market where TalkTalk offers free broadband, ...forever, it makes you wonder -- what is Vodafone's current profit margin?

In an odd reversal, the company will look more like a traditional carrier offering triple-play services rather than a cell phone operator but will use mobile, its core technology, to differentiate itself in its new broadband and DSL markets. Vodafone made the announcement in conjunction with the company�s release of its year-end numbers in which it posted a net loss of $41 billion. Last year the company posted a profit of $12 billion.

Vodafone will not enter the broadband market directly as a service provider. Instead, it will resell DSL services as part of a fixed-mobile package called Mobile Plus.

�We have no desire to buy any fixed-line companies, because there is plenty of capacity available,� said Arun Sarin, Vodafone�s chief executive. �We will resell broadband service and package it with our products. We are looking at this from a customer�s point of view.�

Vodafone�s announcement was viewed as a surrender of sorts, going with wired broadband rather than wireless broadband, which was one of the promises of 3G technology.

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