Vodafone merges European operations
Vodafone plans to merge its northern, central and southern European regional businesses into one unit.
According to Reuters, the reorganization will take place in October. The changes in company structure will merge Vodafone's Turkish division into the Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific unit.
The new, merged unit will be led by Philipp Humm. The 53 year-old, appointed CEO of the Northern and Central Europe branches in 2012, was once the President and CEO of T-Mobile USA. Prior to this, the executive was a member of T-Mobile's International Committee, Chief Regional Officer of T-Mobile's European branch, and Chief Sales Officer for T-Mobile Germany.
The current head of Vodafone's southern Europe operations, Paolo Bertoluzzo, will become the group's commercial and operations officer.
Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said that the changes in organization "will allow [Vodafone] to improve the customer experience and develop commercial strategy more quickly and consistently."
Vodafone's interest in European markets has increased this year. In June, the company announced it would double investment in its U.K. next-generation 4G LTE network ahead of its launch this year after spending around £800 million ($1.2bn) in an auction of wireless spectrum in February.
However, Europe is not the only region in which the carrier wishes to expand. Vodafone Australia customers travelling to the U.S., the U.K. or New Zealand can now sign up for new contracts which will kill off eye-watering roaming charges.