Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2025 231
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Regulation continued Unaudited information Country specific Germany
United Kingdom New Ofcom and Advertising Standards Agency MCPR regulations came into force on 17 January 2025, requiring Vodafone to prominently explain how prices will increase in pounds and pence terms. Vodafone implemented these regulations on time. Ofcom is expected to undertake a monitoring review of implementation across industry later this year. Ofcom’s Telecom’s Access Review is now underway. It is a far-reaching consultation that will determine fixed wholesale market regulation for business connectivity and broadband services in the five years to April 2031. Ofcom have signalled that they are keen to maintain market stability with only modest changes anticipated. Ofcom has confirmed that an auction of mmWave spectrum will be held in September/October 2025. It has additionally launched a review of annual spectrum fees, with initial proposals suggesting an annual reduction of around £10 million. Vodacom: South Africa (‘SA’) The NRA (‘ICASA’) has concluded its Review of the Pro-competitive Conditions imposed on licensees under the Call Termination Regulations and published its findings document on 28 March 2022. ICASA gave notice on 26 May 2023 of the Final Amendment to the Call Termination Regulations. The final regulations were published in the Government Gazette on 9 December 2024. The first reduction in MTR and FTR will be effective on 1 July 2025, with a further two reductions in July 2026 and July 2027. Asymmetric MTRs for existing mobile network operators will be removed by July 2026, whilst new entrants will be entitled to asymmetric MTRs and FTRs for three years post entry. The NRA decided to undertake a separate process on international call termination, which is currently deregulated.
On 23 June 2023, the Department of Communication and Digital Technology (‘DCDT’) published proposed amendments to the Electronic Communications Act (‘Bill’) for comment. Vodacom SA submitted written comments on the Bill on 31 August 2023. There have been no further developments since the election of the new Parliament and the establishment of the Government of National Unity. On 29 February 2024, the NRA published draft amendments to the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter (‘EUSSC’) Regulations 2016 for comment. These relate to bundle usage sequencing and roll-over, and the transfer of bundles (or portions thereof) of voice minutes, SMS and data bundles. The NRA held a Public Hearing on 1 and 2 October 2024. Vodacom is to submit responses to questions following the Public Hearings on 25 October 2024. The final step in the process is the publications of the Final Regulations. The NRA has initiated an inquiry into a proposed new Licensing Framework for Satellite Services with the publication of a Discussion Document. The deadline for public submissions was 12 November 2024. A public hearing was held on the 5, 6 and 7 February 2025. The NRA intends to (i) develop a transparent regulatory framework with clear rules to establish regulatory certainty for potential investors; (ii) develop procedures for authorising user-terminals operations in South African territory; (iii) review spectrum fees, taking also into account the increasing amount of bandwidth used by satellite systems operating in higher frequency bands, and; (iv) develop a procedure for registration of international space segment providers (including details of ITU coordination status of the space segment) who intend to provide a service either directly or indirectly (through existing licensed operators) to South African consumers.
The next step in the process is the publication of a Findings document, followed by the publication of Draft regulations and/or amendments, which will be sent to the Radio Spectrum Regulations for comment. The process will conclude with the publication of Final regulations and/or amendments to the Radio Spectrum Regulations. The estimated date of publication is not yet known. Other Europe: Ireland; Portugal; Romania; Greece; Czech Republic; Albania Spectrum In Portugal, Vodafone Portugal continues to appeal against certain aspects of the conditions for the 5G auction, which concluded in November 2021, claiming the conditions between new entrants and mobile network operators were discriminatory. Legal proceedings are still ongoing, with no expected date of conclusion, and the rights of use remain in place in the meantime. In Albania, the NRA (‘AKEP’) launched spectrum auctions, which took place on 17 and 24 October 2024. The NRA auctioned a quantity of 280 MHz of spectrum. Vodafone Albania (‘VFAL’) and One each won a quantity of 120 MHz spectrum. VFAL offered €5,436,500 for bands 3680–3800 MHz. One Albania offered €5,437,355 for bands 3420–3540 MHz. Both spectrum bands are offered for a fifteen years’ term, with an optional additional five years. VFAL obtained the official licence on 11 November 2024 and has since rolled out the first 5G service in Albania. In Greece, concerns over electromagnetic field (‘EMF’) radiation triggered a residents’ petition for the annulment of the 5G Auction Tender document. Despite the auction process completing in December 2020 and the assigned spectrum already being in use by Vodafone Greece, the petition against the Tender document was heard in January 2022. The High Administrative Court by its decision nο. A1046/10-07-2024 has rejected the petition for annulment of NRA’s (‘EETT’) decision. There is no further right of appeal.
Licences for frequency allocations at 800MHz, parts of 1800MHz, and 2600MHz will expire at the end of 2025. Vodafone Germany currently holds allocations at 800MHz and 2600MHz. In March 2025, the National Regulatory Authority (‘NRA’) Bundesnetzagentur (‘BNetzA’) decided that the existing licences will be extended by five years, supplemented by a prolongation of the Vodafone allocations at 1800 MHz by three years (2034 – 2036). The prolongation implies further coverage obligations, for example, 99.5% area coverage, additional household related obligations in remote areas, as well as extended coverage of traffic routes. In 2019, Vodafone acquired spectrum at 2.1GHz and 3.6GHz. The spectrum allocation includes coverage obligations which, depending on the specifics of the obligation, have to be fulfilled by end of either 2022 or 2024. All mobile network operators have reported on time on the status of obligation fulfilment, including given judicial or factual circumstances hindering fulfilment. For the 2022 obligations, BNetzA assessed the reports, including Vodafone’s, and informed Vodafone about the results at the end of September 2023. As a consequence, BNetzA has conducted an official hearing with Vodafone on possible fines for a minor number of cases of non-fulfilment but has not yet issued a final decision. For the 2024 obligations, BNetzA is currently assessing the reports. In July 2022, BNetzA published the future access regulation, which will apply to the access networks of Deutsche Telekom. Under this new access regulation, BNetzA has applied a lighter regulatory approach in fibre networks than was previously applied to Deutsche Telekom’s copper networks. An important aspect of the BNetzA decision is regulated access to ducts of Deutsche Telekom. The complete operational implementation of the new approach in regulated standard offers and fees is still pending. In July 2024, BNetzA laid down the fees for access to passive infrastructure held by Deutsche Telekom, notably ducts.
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