Vodafone decides to reinstates Carphone

Carphone Warehouse is expected to announce it is to once again sell Vodafone airtime contracts to new customers on Friday (July 3), Mobile News understands.

Carphone was dropped by Vodafone as an airtime distributor in October 2006, amid reports of high churn. Vodafone has since put all its third-party consumer connections through Carphone rival Phones 4U, which has been held to tough volume targets by the network.

Carphone was retained by Vodafone for upgrade business and prepay sales only.

Carphone staff claimed today they had been informed by Vodafone representatives in store that all the retailer's sales channels will be reinstated July 3, including its 820 stores and various websites.

A Carphone spokesperson said: "Our position on this is the same as it has been for almost there years; that if Vodafone decides to come back, the door is certainly open. It is in our interest to have Vodafone back."

Vodafone UK chief executive Guy Laurence told reporters in early June the decision, taken by his predecessor Nick Read, to remove Carphone from its distribution roster had not gone as planned.

"It was a decision we took some time ago in the hope that it would provide some kind of changes in the overall distribution pattern in the UK," said Laurence.

"That did not happen. Obviously it is something that we reconsider on a regular basis."