Vodafone partners with Opera Software to launch Opera Web Pass

Service will encourage new users to access mobile internet on their devices

Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, in partnership with Opera Software, is all set to bring web pass services to its customers in India. The launch of Opera Web Pass is in line with Vodafone’s strategy to democratize data to drive adoption and usage throughout the country. It will encourage new users to get online using their mobile devices and also help increase data usage among the existing users.

Millions of Indians are already using mobile data on their phones: browsing the web, sharing pictures, being social, reading email and more. Yet there are still a considerable number who are extremely cautious about consuming data from their mobile devices. One of the biggest barriers to starting to use mobile internet is often a confusing, multi-step, time-consuming and error-prone process of subscribing to a data plan. This is exactly where Opera Web Pass comes in handy.

Opera Web Pass will allow Vodafone to package internet access in an easy-to-understand and affordable way. It enables Vodafone to replace complex, KB/MB-based data plans with time-based or content-based web-pass packages. For example, users can pay to browse social-networking sites for a day or an hour, rather than having to keep track of the MBs they have consumed. This is a straightforward, controllable process similar to the way users buy apps today.

Speaking about the initiative, Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India, says, “Mobile internet has immense growth potential, and we are looking to play an integral part of this opportunity. Anticipating the need for customized offers in mobile internet, we have partnered with Opera Software. This services enables our customers to buy small ticket, duration based packs to suit their requirements.”

“Opera and Vodafone have a long and positive history. Vodafone’s customers in a number of countries, including India, consume mobile data by surfing with a customized Opera Mini browser. We are glad to strengthen this partnership and continue our work towards bringing the next billion users online,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

Using the Opera Web Pass configuration tool, operators can also monitor and optimize web passes and campaigns in near real time, allowing for testing and faster go-to-market timelines. For more information, check out this Opera Web Pass video that unpacks how easy it is to implement and buy a web pass and get online: http://www.operasoftware.com/products/web-pass/.

About Vodafone India

Vodafone India is a member of the Vodafone Group and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Max acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. The company has operations across the country serving over 160 million customers. This journey is a strong testimony of Vodafone’s success in a highly competitive and price sensitive market. Vodafone India in its long-term commitment to India has been providing innovative, customer friendly and reliable products and services by continuously differentiating itself with a strong brand, best quality network, unique distribution and great customer service.

Vodafone has been receiving several awards and recognition across different segments. The company was recently recognized as India’s ‘Most Trusted Brand in Telecom category’ in the Brand Trust Report 2014 by the Trust Research Advisory. Vodafone was also recognized as ‘Most Respected At the Aegis Graham Bell Awards 2013, the company was awarded for excellence in ‘Service Innovation’ and ‘Innovation in Training and Learning’ categories. The company also received the ‘Best 3G services operator’ at the recent tele.net Telecom awards. In a survey conducted by Nielsen; Vodafone India has been recognized as the ‘Most Likeable Brand’ in the consumer services category. Vodafone India has also been making significant strides with its wide retail presence in the country. The company won the award for innovation in Retail, at International women leadership forum for the concept of Angel (all women) stores across the country. The company has been recognized as one of the ‘Best Employer of Choice’ in telecom sector by ‘Great Places to Work’ and Vodafone Business Services has been awarded the “Best Enterprise Service Provider” at the Frost & Sullivan Awards for three consecutive years in 2011, 2012 and 2013. On the technology front, the company has also won the Enterprise & IT Infrastructure Global Excellence Award for its Business Intelligence (BI) transformation project.

As a value based organization, Vodafone is committed to achieving the highest standards of Health, Safety and Well-being not only for its employees but also for all its partners. For creating such a responsible culture in the organization, the company recently received the Golden Peacock Occupational Health & Safety Award 2013.

At Vodafone, sustainability is an integral part of the company’s mission and strategy, shaping the conduct of business every day. ‘Vodafone Cares’ is a platform to showcase all the good that we do for the society and we have championed several projects and initiatives under the three pillars of Education, Environment and Empowerment. Through the Vodafone Foundation, we are committed to enable people and use technology to address some of India’s most pressing challenges relating to education, health, equality and access. All our activities focus on the 4Ms of empowering individuals – m Health, m Education, m Agriculture and m Women.

Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies with over 419 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as of 31 December 2013. Vodafone has equity interests in telecommunications operations in nearly 30 countries and around 50 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com. Follow us on twitter @VodafoneIN