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Vodafone engages with regulators and governments on a wide range of issues directly relevant to our company and industry, as well as issues of broad public interest. We aim to be direct and transparent about our views, and base our opinions on evidence. All engagement with governments and regulators is subject to our Group Public Policy Principles.
We seek to inform policymakers – including legislators, government officials and regulators – about the nature of our business, the mobile industry and the business environment generally. Vodafone develops policy positions which explain the outcomes the Company seeks from the public policy process and how we believe policy makers should approach issues.
Many of our written submissions are made public by the government organisation to which they are submitted. Vodafone believes in transparency in government relations and will provide copies of any formal submissions in the public domain to regulators and governments on request. The views expressed on this website and in our Sustainability Report are consistent with the views presented by Vodafone to governments.
We work with key industry trade associations on public policy issues. For example, Vodafone is a member of the World Economic Forum, GSM Association, GSM Europe and the International Telecommunication Union. Vodafone is also commonly a member of national telecommunications industry associations in the countries where we operate if these associations exist.
It is Vodafone’s Group policy not to make political donations or support particular party political interests.
We engage with regulators on general industry issues and sustainability-related issues such as privacy and climate change.
See our public policy website for position papers, policy papers and our responses to government consultations on specific issues.
Vodafone's position on public issues
General issues
General industry issues
Vodafone local operating companies are generally subject to regulation governing the activities of our industry in individual countries, as well as general competition (anti-trust) laws applicable to all activities.
Our engagement with regulators and governments mainly focuses on the following issues relevant to our industry:
Broader public issues
Vodafone also seeks to help governments meet their objectives on a number of issues of broader public interest. These include:
Child safety online
Together with other mobile operators, we developed national codes reflecting the principles of the European Framework for Safer Mobile Use by Younger Teenagers and Children. These self-regulatory codes commit national mobile operators to classifying commercial content; offering access controls where services include adult commercial content; contributing to education and awareness raising on these issues; and to combating illegal content in the EU.
See child safety online for more on Vodafone’s approach to these issues.
Universal service
Universal service means ensuring that consumers have access to communications services, regardless of income, geography or disability. Vodafone believes that universal service will be achieved through the creation of a competitive mobile market which removes current regulatory barriers to wider telecommunications provision within national markets. We believe that market-based mechanisms, including spectrum re-farming and network sharing by operators, will progressively extend competitive supply of mobile communications to more rural areas.
Many people with disabilities already benefit from mobile services, including people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing benefiting from SMS communication – which is now a mainstream service. However, some groups of disabled customers remain excluded from telecommunications.
Vodafone is committed to increasing the range of propositions which it offers to disabled customer segments so that we offer at least one product or service designed to meet the needs of key disabled customer groups in each market where we operate.
See accessibility for more on Vodafone’s approach to these issues.
Privacy
Privacy and data security notification
Identity theft is a growing problem. We want to reassure our customers that their security is protected. Vodafone supports the European Commission’s efforts to strengthen security and privacy, and increase industry’s obligation to notify consumers of security breaches.
We would like the Commission to consider a self-regulatory approach, at least initially, enabling the industry to use its experience to develop appropriate safeguards. We believe that notification of security breaches should be limited to incidents that involve the risk of harm being caused to the individual and only those groups of individuals at risk should be notified. Some exemptions may be necessary, particularly where notification may be contrary to the interests of national security.
We engaged with EU level politicians and policy makers on the revision of the EU data protection directive and participated in several high level events organised by the OECD and the International Privacy Commissioners’ Conference to communicate our position on privacy, regulation and industry standards.
Climate change
As part of the EU Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) on Climate Change, Vodafone is lobbying in support of the EU’s climate targets – to cut carbon emissions by 20%, generate 20% of energy from renewables and improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020. The CLG’s vision is for the EU to meet its 2020 targets in a way that provides long-term economic and competitive benefits to European business. Vodafone’s target for our own operations is to cut our carbon footprint by 50% by 2020 in mature markets and we have also set a carbon intensity target in rapidly growing emerging markets.
See more on our approach to minimising our footprint and our contribution to a low-carbon future.
Download our 2010/11 sustainability report [PDF] and view previous versions.
