Articles tagged with: Vodafone Australia and Phones 4u

Lots of phone shops up for sale

The UK newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph has reported that the 3G license holder Hutchison 3G is considering buying on of the UK's largest cell phone retail shops. The Phones 4U chain has 255 stores and is part of the privately owned Caudwell Communications. The retail division has been valued at around US$728 million. The paper said that it is not clear if the sale would also include Caudwell's service provider company, SinglePoint which resells airtime on the Vodafone network. Hutchison 3G has however denied the reports and Caudwell Communications has not commented on the story. The purchase would give Hutchison an immediate presence in the UK's retail market and boost its attempts to build up a customer base in time for the launch of its 3G network next September. The newspaper did not name its sources. Phones 4U sells handsets for all four of the UK's cellular networks, but is "Vodafone loyal" in that it prefers to connect to Vodafone, so it's sale to Hutchison would have a noticeable effect on Vodafone's new subscriber numbers from the middle of next year. more

Related Tags: hutchison-3g, singlepoint