Vodafone’s chief executive Vittorio Colao has told The Daily Telegraph that his company’s 4G launch will be delayed to coincide with the delayed arrival of the Apple iPhone 5S. The mobile network operator had originally intended to launch its 4G network in UK cities during June. Similarly Apple had intended to push the iPhone 5S out of the door in June until manufacturing difficulties upset its schedule.
Delayed domino theory
Reports last month suggested the iPhone 5S would be delayed due to manufacturers “trying to find a coating material that did not interfere with the fingerprint sensor”. The original intention, to launch the updated iPhone in June, has therefore been pushed back by a couple of months which would coincide with Vodafone’s 4G launch adjustment.
With this in mind Vodafone’s Vittorio Colao told The Telegraph “End of the summer means when there’s going to be a good commercial moment for launching 4G”. Talking about the competition he added that “EE had a little bit of an advantage because of the iPhone at 1800MHz [EE’s 4G frequency]. To be honest that will go away as soon as we launch our 4G actually.”
Colao tried to put a positive spin on the news by saying that the extra month or two delay would allow the company to do more engineering work and provide “a bigger bump in internet access speed than EE’s”. Whether this takes into consideration EE’s recently stated intention of doubling of its 4G network speed and capacity this summer is not clear.
Premium pricing
Worryingly for those of us with tight wallets The Telegraph also quotes Vodafone’s Colao as saying its 4G pricing would make it a “premium” service. Meanwhile O2 might launch at around the same time as Voda, as it has announced a “summer at the earliest” timeframe according to The Guardian. Even with the delay and expected September launch it looks likely that everyone will beat laggards Three to the 4G market when it launches 4G services near “the end of the year”. Will we have to wait for Three to enter the market to get non-premium pricing?
