Vodafone Group Plc has become the largest reseller of Groupe Speciale Mobile cellular service and equipment in France with its purchase of 100% of Bosch Telecom Service France SA. Both companies sell airtime on the networks of public operator France Telecom and its struggling competitor Societe Francaise de Radiotelephone, where Vodafone now has a 10% stake with the option to increase it to 20%. The two companies’ networks combined now number 50,000 subscribers signed by Bosch, generating revenues estimated at some $90m for next year. Guillaume Peter, sales and marketing director for Bosch, said the sale is the result of the strategic decision taken by Robert Bosch GmbH headquarters in Germany in March to sell all of its activities in digital cellular service sales. In that same month, it sold its German airtime marketing unit to Debitel GmbH. They wanted to concentrate on areas where they are not in competition with network operators, he said. No consolidation or transfer of staff is seen.
