Vodafone Airtouch Seeks U.S. Boost
By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone AirTouch Plc, the world's biggest cellphone company, is seeking further U.S. expansion just two months after securing an ambitious $62 billion takeover of one of America's biggest wireless operators.
An industry source said Thursday that British-based Vodafone wanted to develop its North American operations and he said east coast operator Bell Atlantic, the company Vodafone outbid for AirTouch, was an obvious possibility.
``I don't think it's any secret that Vodafone is looking at what they should do in the U.S.,' the industry source said. 'Clearly there is a relationship with Bell Atlantic, and trying to do something with them is one of the options.'
But Vodafone played down a Times newspaper report that it had already started talks with Bell Atlantic about forming a joint venture, saying that it was too soon to start speculating about any change of strategy in the U.S.
``We (already) have roaming agreements and there are all sorts of options,' a Vodafone spokesman said.
``You can build your own network out, continue with roaming agreements, you can buy other companies. But it's been less than two months since the merger went through. These things take time, and nothing has really changed since then.'
Nevertheless, market hopes that a joint venture with Bell would save Vodafone billions of pounds it might otherwise spend on either buying or building an east coast business helped send the stock 3.6 percent higher to 1278p by 0920 GMT.
The company's shares were the best performers on Britain's top FTSE 100 index.
AirTouch and Bell Atlantic have a historical relationship, but Bell has exercised its options to end a partnership called PrimeCo -- an operator with over one million subscribers mainly in the Midwest -- since Vodafone took control of AirTouch.
AirTouch has around nine million customers and is one of the five largest wireless operators in the U.S. in terms of subscribers -- smaller than Bell Atlantic and rivals SBC Communications Inc (NYSE:SBC - news), both of which have around 13 million customers. (Additional reporting by Alexander Smith) |
