Vodafone Re-Enters U.S.

Vodafone Americas announced their to introduce wireless services for their 400 multinational customers in the U.S., and 500 multinational customers based outside the U.S. with a strong U.S. presence. This move will take place less than a year after unloading its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion. Vodafone will re-enter the U.S. market as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) leveraging T-Mobile’s network. An MVNO is a carrier that doesn’t own the wireless network infrastructure, but rather uses another network to provide services to its customers. The service is expected to launch in late fall 2015. Seeking Alpha noted, “The choice of T-Mobile as a partner will likely raise some eyebrows among Vodafone clients, given the ‘Un-carrier’ has a much smaller corporate customer base than Verizon and AT&T. T-Mobile’s penchant for aggressive pricing might have helped win Vodafone over.”