LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The telecoms regulator on Thursday fined the Greek unit of UK mobile giant Vodafone 19.1 mln eur for violating network regulations in a wire-tapping scandal that rocked the country last year.

The fine is the second handed to Vodafone Hellas over the case after a 76 mln eur penalty levelled by Greece's communication privacy watchdog last December.

Some 100 Vodafone cellphones in February 2006 were found to have been compromised by an illicit network that tapped sets used by Greek Premier Costas Karamanlis, his wife and several ministers from June 2004 to March 2005.

The tapping used software slipped into Vodafone's network by unknown perpetrators to illegally activate an Ericsson-made module permitting call interception.

On Thursday, the national telecommunications regulator EETT accused Vodafone of breaching regulations on the protection of telecommunications privacy, network maintenance and quality, and consumer protection.

The company rejected last December's fine as 'illegal, unfair and baseless.'

A Greek parliament committee collecting evidence on the case last November noted the involvement of three employees of telecoms giants Ericsson Hellas and Vodafone Greece, identified only by their initials.

'The whole system could not operate without Ericsson know-how and without access from within (Vodafone),' the report said.

The Greek branch of Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson has also been fined 7.36 mln eur over the case.

The parliamentary committee did not rule out the involvement of other people operating outside Greece.

The Greek justice department has opened an investigation into the case but nobody has yet been charged.

Days before the affair came to light, a senior Vodafone expert was found hanged inside his home.

The death of Costas Tsalikidis, manager of Vodafone Greece's network planning section, was linked to the case and his family suspects he was murdered.

And me.......

Vodafone to roll out 1,000 5G sites in UK by 2020

Jefferies broker says VOD has To cut DIVE as i mentioned before warning

BB

Vodafone on the line

Half-year Report

Highlights

· Group revenue of €21.8 billion and loss for the financial period of €7.8 billion, primarily due to a loss on the disposal of Vodafone India (following the completion of the merger with Idea Cellular) and impairments

· Organic service revenue (excluding handset financing, IAS 18 basis) up 0.8%** and Q2 up 0.5%** with good commercial and financial performance in most markets offset by increased competition in Italy and Spain

· Growth drivers: good momentum in fixed broadband (384,000 net adds) and convergence (616,000 net adds); Vodafone Business grew 1.0%*, led by strong growth in IoT; Emerging Consumer up 7.4%* driven by data growth

· Organic adjusted EBITDA up 2.9%** (excluding handset financing and settlements, IAS 18 basis), supported by a third consecutive year of net reduction in operating expenses

· Updating full year guidance: underlying organic adjusted EBITDA growth narrowed to c.3% (previously 1-5%); Free cash flow (pre-spectrum) raised to c.€5.4 billion (previously 'at least €5.2 billion')

· Stable interim dividend per share of 4.84 eurocents; full year dividend per share expected to be in-line with FY18

An interesting day ahead!

Credit Suisse Outperform 156.76 225.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 156.76 240.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Buy 156.76 265.00 Reiterates

A mention here.

Deutsche Telekom to win EU okay for Dutch Tele2 deal - sources

R B C capitol not happy say underperperform t 125 i may be a buyer @ this level B B 8/1/19 s/p 155

5G https://www.moneyam.com/action/nav/news?epic=VOD

I hold VOD.

The yield of over 8.5% seem VG, and the return has been good to me.


Projected earnings and price seem reasonable and seem to support the price. Looking to buy a few more at approx 140.

What am I missing?

But perhaps reread this article first:

https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/vodafone-80-share-price-upside-and-9-dividend-yield-ii507525

Trading Update

Highlights

· Group revenue of €11.0 billion, down by €0.8 billion due to the adoption of IFRS15, the sale of Qatar and FX headwinds

· Q3 organic service revenue growth (excluding UK handset financing, IAS 18 basis) of 0.1%** (Q2: 0.5%**); on an IFRS15 basis, growth was 0.4%* (Q2: 0.3%*)

· Similar performance to Q2 in Europe with service revenues -1.1%**, reflecting improving customer and financial trends in Italy, robust retail growth in Germany, reduced churn in Spain and a consistent performance in the UK

· Rest of World grew 4.9%* (Q2: 7.7%*), as a decline in South Africa was offset by good growth in other markets

· Robust commercial momentum across the Group: mobile contract churn reduced by 2.0 percentage points year-on-year; 747,000 mobile contracts and 341,000 broadband net additions, converged base up by 190,000 in Q3

· Intention to extend our existing UK network sharing agreement with Telefonica O2 to include 5G services

· Guidance reiterated: underlying organic adjusted EBITDA growth of c.3%; free cash flow (pre-spectrum) c.€5.4 billion

more.....

Stuck my neck out and bought a few more.

Now watch dividend slash.

I hope I have a long enough neck!

Fred, by what I've read from you over the years, you should have no worries. :-)

I compounded my stupidity and bought a few more at 136p.

I may have to bequest them to my grandson.

Unfortunately VOD seem to have totally lost the plot.