Vodafone to target enterprise with mobile and broadband services in 2017

Vodafone Australia's parent company has hinted at the telco's strategy when it launches its first fixed broadband product later this year.

The telco announced plans to enter the fixed broadband market last October, saying it would release a product on the NBN before the end of 2017.

Hutchison Telecommunications, which owns a 50 percent stake in Vodafone Australia, said that the broadband offering is intended to complement its mobile offering, and was developed in response to strong customer demand to bundle the two services together.

Vodafone also revealed that it would offer broadband services to its growing enterprise customer base. Hutchison chairman Fok Kin Ning said enterprise would be a key focus going forward, including growing its market share and revenue for both mobile and broadband customers.

"[Vodafone's] enterprise strategy, which focuses on small to medium businesses, is working well with the unit achieving growth in business connections and revenue in 2016," he said.

"By delivering personalised value and leveraging its global strengths, the unit is building a loyal customer base with a very high willingness of business customers to recommend VHA products and services to others."

Vodafone reported revenues of $1.67 billion for the financial year ending 31 January, a $150 million drop from the previous financial year.

The company said the declining revenue was "driven entirely" by changes to mobile termination rates, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's mandate to cut mobile call and SMS termination rates last year. Termination rates for calls were reduced from 3.6 cents per minute to 1.7 cents, and messages from 7.5 cents to 0.03 cents.

Australia's two largest telco network operators, Telstra and Optus, have also claimed the ruling had a severe impact on their revenue.

The company posted a $68 million net loss for the year, an improvement from last years' $187.5 million loss. Earnings were also up by 12.2 percent to $456.1 million.

Vodafone's overall customer base grew by 2.3 percent to 5.4 million, with 556,000 of those customers using mobile virtual network services.