Vodafone launched in New Zealand in 1998 with the purchase of Bell South New Zealand. At the time the company had 138,000 customers served by a small GSM network which covered only limited urban areas.
Today Vodafone has over two million customers. Our 2G and 3G mobile networks cover 97 percent of where New Zealanders live, work and play.
With the 2006 purchase of ihug, Vodafone became a full-service telecommunications provider, offering fixed-line services such as home phone lines and broadband. Many of these services are provided through our own fixed-line 'Red Network'. This is part of our global total communications strategy, which will see us driving innovation and fixed/mobile convergence as we aim to meet the full voice and data communications needs of our customers.
Although we are the leader in mobile, our share of the overall telecommunications market is smaller. We hope to increase competition across the whole telecommunications industry, and push to grow our share of the broader telecommunications market. Our current position puts us as the number one challenger in the New Zealand market.
| 2010 | 2009 | |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover ($million) | 1,594.9 | 1,603.4 |
| Profit (after tax) ($million) | 121.6 | 177.7 |
| Customers (million) | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| No. of Employees | 1,367 | 1,390* |
| No. of Mobile Phone Sites | 1,369 | 1,326 |
* Restated from previous report to ensure consistency in reporting methodology
