As I mentioned in this thread:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/inde...showtopic=1203
the 3G operator P4 was going to establish national GSM roaming on Polkomtel network (Plus/Simplus/Sami Swoi). However, Vodafone as the only shareholder (19,61%) of Polkomtel disaproved the idea. Finally, the roaming agreement was signed but Voda announced to block it under the pretext "it's harmful to the company". In response, P4 complained to the regulatory office UKE. Theoretically, the office may even force Polkomtel to sign a new agreement, with T&C's worse than currently negotiated...

Voda are totally crazy and anti-competitive... how I hate that provider...

You are right, Voda sucks everywhere. They are usually the least developed operator on the market.

It's funny enough because Plus in Poland is rather innovative - maybe <20% of Voda isn't so harmful :P. BTW, does "Voda" in "Vodafone" sound funny in Czech ears :)?

That probably also depends on the individual network they operate in each country. I'm not a Vodafone advocate but they're the #2 worldwide in terms of subscribers behind China Mobile so they must be doing something right. They also have a presence in the US through their 45% minority stake in Verizon Wireless (who in return owns 23% of Vodafone Italy).

I don't use Vodafone here in Germany since their plans don't rate good enough in my book. I'm sticking with E-Plus' BASE plan which gets me unlimited calls to German landlines/E-Plus/simyo etc for ?25/month.

Well here Vodafone took over Oskar. From than they focused only on making the most profit possible. Basically they did invest too much and there is no new services except Vodafone Live. But similar services have both Eurotel and T-Mobile for a few years now, plus lot of happening on fast data umts/hsdpa. But this is not the case with Vodafone. I can also compare on two other markets. In Cyprus, they are also behind on data, but generally very good coverage. But this because, there partnership with Cyta. In South Africa Vodacom is also partnership 50% local Telekom/50% Vodacom do they better, but I would say most of the new gadgets starts with MTN. Also looks like MTN has better coverage. So to summarise it, my understanding is when Vodacom has 100% shareholding in local company, they focus solely on profit and try to not invest too much. On other side, when they have local partner, the company is more likely to invest in new technologies.
Howgh

Here in Italy Vodafone is quite "advanced", but the problem is that they are damned expensive and they don't like to have other players in the market, they alwasy do their best (sometimes not in very fair ways) to cause problems to the competitors, but never lowering tariffs or offering a really competitive offer.

Vodafone are incredibly good at marketing, they created and incredibly strong brand and they can sell it very well.

P.S. How I liked Oskar... so sad to read Voda everywhere in Prague, and not for water! :P

I Went to Prague a couple of years ago on holiday, great city, great women!!! and i bought a oskar mobile pre-pay sim was great service, especially as i was calling home to the uk every day and sending many texts! Vodafone, in the UK are big! but due to the competative nature of the UK mbile market they do not have total power of call costs and national roaming etc!

Sad to hear that Vodafone Poland are being gits re national roaming!

There's no Vodafone Poland - it's a 19,61% shareholder of Polkomtel. And yesterday the agreement under consideration was finally signed (after some threats from the regulatory office however :P)

To be fair to Vodafone, Polkomtel is co-owned by three other Polish companies, none of which have any expertise in mobile telephony, and all of which are state-owned or -controlled (Poland's proposed new fourth provider would be another state-run affair; how many other EU countries have a situation like this?). They'll probably sell to Vodafone in the end, so the intention of buying TDC's share of Polkomtel was only to collude and sell it on to Vodafone at a profit. It's no wonder Voda is playing hardball. Plus has gone from being the #1 network to being the #3, something which they can't be happy about.