Vodafone announces €500m investment and wins ‘best in Test’

Vodafone Ireland has been recognised as Ireland’s best network for the eighth consecutive year for its mobile services. Achieving ‘Best in Test’ by umlaut, part of Accenture, Vodafone scored highest above its competitors across the categories of; ‘Best in Reliability, ‘Best in Voice’ and ‘Best in Crowd-sourced Quality’ and number one overall, nationwide with a 40-point margin.

The recognition comes as Vodafone continues its extensive network modernisation programme. The company invested €300 million over the last three years with another half a billion to be invested over the next five years to enhance services for customers in relation to improved call and text reliability, Superfast 4G, 5G and wider high-definition voice coverage.

The programme will also support the phased transition of Vodafone’s entire 3G service onto its stronger and more sustainable 4G and 5G network, providing customers with Ireland’s most reliable network experience across the country.

In addition, Vodafone is investing significantly in its ‘smart networks’ programme to use innovative, sustainable and creative methods to reduce its network energy usage and optimise the connectivity experience, even as data usage continues to increase at an unprecedented rate. The Irish business was one of the first of Vodafone’s markets to roll out a new Intelligent Energy Management System across its 4G network, reducing energy consumption by 10-15%.

Amanda Nelson, CEO, Vodafone Ireland, said: “We are delighted to have achieved ‘Best in Test’ for the 8^th year in a row. The recognition is very much aligned with our ambition to provide the best and most reliable level of network coverage around the country for our customers, so we are thrilled to be receiving this award once again. Umlaut’s methodology really focuses on the customer experience and for that we are truly proud to be “Best in reliability” in Ireland. That said, our work is never done, and even in challenging times for the industry we are continuing to invest to futureproof our network using smart technologies and solutions to the benefit of all our partners and customers.”

Umlaut’s methodology comprises of a 5,206 Km drive and walk test across five cities 22 towns and all major roads with 10k voice calls and 70K data sessions, which equates to 44% pop coverage. The crowd source data is even more extensive with 98% of the population covered and an area of 61.098 km² tested, measuring the true customer experience across a very wider population coverage.

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