NEW ORLEANS-Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch plc are on track to complete their joint venture April 1 with some aggressive plans for pushing wireless growth and a new nationwide brand.
Chris Gent, chief executive of U.K.-based Vodafone AirTouch, told last week’s Wireless 2000 audience that he was unsatisfied with wireless growth in the company’s U.S. business.
“There are two markets that are slower than we like: the U.S. and Germany,” said Gent. “Our view is we need to press our foot on the accelerator.”
Gent believes the joint venture needs to speed up its conversion of analog to digital to push wireless Internet access and flood the market with prepaid offerings. Prepaid is responsible for the massive growth in the U.K. market, where customers can easily purchase prepaid cards at their local supermarket.
“We felt we had to make mobile easy and accessible,” said Gent of Vodafone AirTouch’s success in the U.K. market. “We needed to make services simple … We became much more brand-conscious.”
Bell Atlantic Mobile Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam told RCR he doesn’t doubt the two companies will end up aligned in their vision for the U.S wireless market. The two already have joint-venture experience with personal communications services operator PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P., which also will be folded into the new joint venture.
“The constructive tension in PrimeCo brought us to higher levels,” said McAdam, former head of PrimeCo.
“There’s no doubt we’ll come out aligned.”
McAdam’s task will be to mimic the success PrimeCo has had with prepaid service. Prepaid subscriber additions account for 75 percent of all its customer additions today. The success has revolved around simplified pricing.
