Vodafone Exceeds 1 Million Users of its Hosted Communications Service for Small and Medium Enterprises

Vodafone today announces it has more than one million users of its hosted "One Net" service in Europe, as growing numbers of Small and Medium Enterprises seek to gain competitive advantage by bringing their fixed and mobile communications together.

In the current challenging economic climate, small businesses recognise that they need to be even more responsive to the needs of their customers and "One Net" enables them to field calls both quickly and efficiently, wherever they may be.

Small and Medium Enterprises are also achieving considerable cost savings by handing the management of both their fixed and mobile communications needs to Vodafone. Significantly, cost savings are also realised because all calls between "One Net" company handsets – both fixed and mobile – are free.

As "One Net" is a rental-based solution, priced on a per user basis, it is highly attractive to Small and Medium Enterprises because it requires no capital investment. The current economic environment has made this hosted service even more appealing to businesses. Vodafone "One Net’s" scalability enables customers to easily increase or decrease the number of connections to match changing staffing needs within their business.

Through its advanced call management system, the "One Net" service allows users to answer calls to their business on either their fixed or mobile phone, the ability to transfer calls between phones or to any other phone within the business and benefit from one combined voicemail box.

Also, "One Net" reduces the administrative burden for Small and Medium Enterprises through its simple per-user, per-month charging system together with one monthly bill covering all of the business’s communications needs.

“Hosted voice has become increasingly popular in the current macroeconomic climate because it offers flexibility, low risk and cost control” said Angela Salmeron from IDC, the leading industry analyst firm, in a report* published in August 2010.

Vodafone’s "One Net" service is in the forefront of the rapidly growing market for Cloud Telephony, which provides customers with hosted, scalable fixed and mobile communications solutions.

The "One Net" system utilises Vodafone’s sophisticated IP Centrex telephony system, which enables this high level of integration between fixed and mobile phone handsets. The recent success of products such as Vodafone’s “One Net” service has contributed to an upward revision of IDC’s IP Centrex services forecasts. Its August 2010 report reported “We see this market taking off over the forecast period. IP Centrex is the fastest-growing IP voice service in Western Europe, and it is expected to be worth $3.6 billion (€2.6bn) in 2014. This is a compound annual growth rate of 47% in the period. ”

“Vodafone has taken a leadership position in this emerging market for Cloud Telephony. This market is taking off because customers can now be more responsive to business enquiries, manage their communications costs more efficiently and - being a hosted solution - they can spend more time focused on their own business”, said Tom Craig, Vodafone’s Business Services Director. “The service enables smaller companies to compete alongside their larger rivals by giving them all the call handling capabilities they will need without a significant financial outlay. In addition, it offers a transparent, per-user charging model across both fixed and mobile phones.”

* = IDC Report: Western European IP Centrex Services Market, 2009-2014, published August 2010

For further information:

Vodafone Group
Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664444