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Vodafone Group Plc
Protecting our Planet Empowering People Maintaining Trust
Other information
Empowering people 29 Closing the digital divide 30 Financial Inclusion
Closing the digital divide We believe everyone should fully benefit from the digital society, regardless of who they are or where they live. However, with a third of the world’s population still offline, a digital divide between the connected and unconnected persists. We focus on overcoming the main barriers to connectivity by increasing network coverage, increasing access to smart devices, and providing services aimed specifically at bringing more women online. 4G population coverage This KPI measures the proportion of the nationwide population that is within range of a 4G mobile network with sufficient radio signal strength in outdoor scenarios for a user’s mobile device to remain connected to the network and be able to receive downstream (from the Internet to the device) data at a throughput rate of at least 1Mbps. A data rate of at least 1Mbps is considered as the minimum required for users to connect to the Internet for the purposes of web-browsing, using online applications as well as to provide a basic level of video streaming. As the data rate on a mobile device is directly linked to the radio signal strength it receives, we are able to calculate the minimum signal strength required to support the minimum threshold of 1Mbps. We use radio planning tools to map out the population spread and densities as well as terrain criteria by using 3rd party databases containing this information for a specific country or region. We use this tool to identify optimum locations to build a
new radio base station site as well as to optimise the existing network to ensure our customers enjoy a reliable and consistent data experience. By mapping all our radio base station sites and their individual technical characteristics such as antenna direction and radio signal strength for example within the tool, we are able to calculate the proportion of the population within a country or geographic area who will typically obtain sufficient radio signal strength for their device to maintain a downstream data rate of at least 1Mbps. On-net gigabit connections We report the number of fixed access networks in Europe where the Group owns and manages the active equipment which is capable of downloading data at a rate of at least one gigabit per second (1Gps). We use our inventory database of fixed access networks to identify the number of gigabit capable connections; industry standard DOCSIS 3.1 and Fibre to the We report the number of countries where the Group provides a commercially live 5G service from at least one radio access site and the number of cities with a population over 100,000 with this service. Commercially live 5G services are defined as those where customers are able to obtain 5G access and use it to send or receive mobile traffic over the 5G network. We use our inventory database and radio planning tools to identify the locations of 5G services and to map out the population spread for a specific country or city. Premise (FTTP). 5G availability
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