Launch of Mobile Broadband Ho

RNS Number : 8314Y

Vodafone Group Plc

10 September 2009

 



10 September 2009

VODAFONE TO LAUNCH MOBILE BROADBAND HOTSPOT  

Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot Creates a Wi-Fi Cloud Capable of

Connecting Up to Five Devices Simultaneously 

Vodafone, the world's leading international mobile telecommunications company today announces the launch of the Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot, extending the benefits of mobile broadband from laptop and netbook customers to users of all Wi-Fi enabled devices in selected markets. The device will initially be available in Germany, Romania and Spain.

The Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot enables both consumer and business customers to connect several devices wirelessly either at home or in the office anywhere within the Vodafone Mobile Broadband footprint. It represents a new category of intelligent devices with mobile broadband connectivity that does not require any type of software installation to use.

The credit-card sized, operating system independent, Mobile Broadband Hotspot enables customers to connect quickly and easily to any device that supports the Wi-Fi standard, then connect to the internet using Vodafone's mobile broadband connectivity. The move is expected to bring the benefits of mobile broadband to a new range of devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras and gaming consoles

With one touch to power on, users will be able to detect the mobile Wi-Fi cloud using any device configured for Wi-Fi and connect up to five devices within a 10-metre radius.  An internal battery provides up to four hours of active use on a single charge. The device delivers remarkable performance with speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps on the downlink and 5.7 Mbps on the uplink between the Mobile Broadband Hotspot and the Mobile Broadband network.

'The Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot offers mobile professionals, students and families a one-touch connectivity solution that turns Wi-Fi enabled devices such as MP3 players and laptops into connected mobile internet devices,' said Huw Medcraft, Mobile Broadband Director, Vodafone. 'This product brings even more flexibility to our customers, and ensures that Vodafone's market leading mobile broadband can be rolled out to even more devices to give customers greater convenience.'

Expandable memory support for up to 16GB via microSD makes the device a flexible and robust platform capable of storing and sharing personal content such as documents, music, video and pictures over Wi-Fi. Access to the expandable memory is separately available to all devices connected to the Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot. The device is supplied by Novatel Wireless (Nasdaq: NVTL), a leader in the design and development of innovative wireless broadband access solutions.

'With its leading mobile broadband services and a wide global presence, combined with Novatel's MiFi portfolio of intelligent mobile hotspots, Vodafone customers will have unprecedented opportunities to access the internet with all their Wi-Fi devices virtually anywhere and anytime they want,' said Rob Hadley, chief marketing officer for Novatel Wireless. 'We are very excited to work with Vodafone to provide the most advanced wireless data ecosystem available for customers.'

The Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot will be available through Vodafone direct and business sales channels in selected markets. For more information visit 

www.support.vodafone.com/MobileBroadbandHotspot and www.support.vodafone.com/MiFi2352 

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For further information:

Vodafone Group

Media Relations

Tel: [phone]

About Vodafone

Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group with approximately 315 million proportionate customers as at 30 June 2009. Vodafone currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and around 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com

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