Vodafone Group PLC (LON:VOD) unveiled a trio of news announcements today including an exclusive partnership with Samsung Electronics Co.Ltd to develop and launch a range of consumer Internet of things (IoT) ‘Smart Home’ product and services in selected European markets.
The service, named ‘V-Home by Vodafone’ will bring together its IoT system and Samsung’s ‘SmartThings’ open platform. It will send immediate alerts to customer’s phones in the event of a home intrusion. It also enables simple remote automation of home appliances and utilities, including voice activation via home voice assistants.
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The FTSE 100-listed company said the new service will be launched in Germany and Spain in the second quarter of 2018, and it will continue to expand it throughout the year, offering more products and services.
Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone, said: “The IoT is already transforming the world of work; now, it will transform the home.”
'Big Data for Good'
In the separate statement on Monday, Vodafone also announced it is pioneering a ‘Big Data For Good’ programme in Ghana.
The company said the new programme will use aggregated anonymised mobile data to track real-time trends in population movement. The data will be analysed to provide life-saving insights during a widespread epidemic and government departments will be able to allocate resources more efficiently and identify the areas at increased risk of new outbreaks.
They said the level of activity at each mobile phone mast can provide a ‘heat map’ of where people are and how far they are moving during the outbreak, while anonymised data can be used for decision making.
Joakin Reiter, Vodfone's external affairs director, said: “As we can now measure human mobility, it is possible to model how infections spread. This has the potential to save thousands of lives.”
Vodafone Qatar stake sold
And later on, Vodafone also announced that Qatar Foundation LLC will acquire its 51% stake in the joint venture company that controls Vodafone Qatar.
The group said Qatar Foundation will pay a total cash consideration of €301mln to acquire the stake, with €279mln payable at completion, which is expected in the next three months, and the balance 12 months later.
The group said the transaction values Vodafone Qatar at an enterprise value of €1.451bn.
The UK firm said it has entered into a partner market agreement with Vodafone Qatar with an initial term of five years from completion.
In early afternoon trading, Vodafone shares were up 0.6% at 205.05p.
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