Experienced Elder takes root at Vodafone's Irish operations

Teresa Elder isn't afraid of standing out from the crowd. Rising to the position of president at AT&T Broadband West, the 20-year veteran of the US telecoms industry decided to take a career break to raise money for charity. One of just a handful of top female executives in the notoriously male-dominated broadband sector, Elder swapped managing a billion dollar budget for raising tens of thousands of dollars for cystic fibrosis (CF) research.

"The reason I did it is simple," says Elder. "Nine years ago my son was diagnosed with CF and my husband and I really wanted to make some sort of input."

The timing of her decision was also affected by the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th 2001, which unleashed a tremendous amount of funds for charities. However, this made it more difficult for other charities such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to raise money for research that is desperately needed to develop new treatments for the disease.

"There were clearly more research opportunities than there were funds to support them so my husband and I volunteered to help local groups raise money," says Elder, who adds that she thinks her actions did make a difference during that period.

Two years on and Elder is again doing things a little bit differently by relocating her family to Dublin and taking the reins at one of the Republic's biggest companies, Vodafone Ireland.

The 43-year-old's appointment as chief executive of Vodafone Ireland in January may have surprised some people in the organisation, but several sessions with Vodafone group's chief executive Aurin Sarin and her predecessor at Vodafone Ireland, Paul Donovan, were enough to convince both men that Elder was the right candidate to lead its top selling national operator.

"This is my first time as chief executive of a company but I've performed many of the relevant functions during my career as a president and senior vice-president with similar firms," says Elder. "I'm also passionate about what I do, whether it is raising money for cystic fibrosis or dealing with employees, budgets or customers... I am excited and honoured to be at Vodafone."

Elder says there is a clear alignment of values between Vodafone and herself based around attitudes to people, research, customers and the surrounding world. "These are passions we both share," she adds.

"Vodafone Ireland is at the cutting edge in many of the things we do. For example, we are only the third generation network in the Republic and offer innovative services such as Wireless Office - which enable people to work while they are on the move."

Innovation and applying technology to provide services that people really need are two themes that Elder addresses throughout the interview. But she is also conscious of the huge debate about mobile phone pricing that has hogged the headlines in the Republic for the past three years.

"The average revenue per user figures (ARPU) and customer numbers that Vodafone enjoys in the Irish market are two factors that attracted me to the position of chief executive," says Elder, who - much like her predecessor Donovan - denies that Irish ARPU of €602 means that customers are being ripped off.

"ARPU is a function of usage and behaviour, and independent market surveys place our pre-pay rates as the fourth lowest in Europe and post-paid at around the average," she says. "And that is before we even launched our perfect fit tariffs last week."

Elder says the new tariffs will offer simplicity and "the best value ever". However, her honey-tongued western US accent is unlikely to cut any ice with the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).

ComReg has accused Vodafone and O2 of "tacitly colluding" in the Irish market to keep mobile phone prices higher than they should. It is also proposing to force Vodafone Ireland to open its network for use by rivals known as mobile virtual network operators - firms that lease airtime from network operators such as Vodafone and sell it on to their own customers. The decision, which was recently notified to the European Commission, is being opposed by all three network operators in the Republic.

"We completely disagree with the regulator's decision, which has no factual financial or legal basis. We have appealed the decision and the remedies proposal," says Elder, who has yet to meet ComReg chairwoman Isolde Goggin. "The regulator needs to look at the actual facts and realise that the figures are a reflection of the minutes of use in the market... It shows consumers are also moving from fixed-line phones to mobile phones."

Elder also disputes the contention by the regulator in its decision that the mobile market is not yet competitive. ComReg should be taking a forward looking view of the market as it changes with new competitors entering, she adds, in a reference to the proposed launch of the pan-European mobile operator Hutchison, branded 3, later in the summer.

When asked how far Vodafone is prepared to go with its appeal, Elder signals that the firm will appeal to every available forum,including the High Court and the European Court of Justice.

It has already appealed the ComReg ruling to the telecoms appeals panel, which has not yet convened to hear the case. A decision by this panel may not be ready until next year while a later appeal to Europe may take years.

But Elder insists she is not opposed to virtual operators and is involved in negotiations with some potential operators where it is commercially viable.

"We are undertaking these negotiations in good faith and have signed deals in other markets, so we are not afraid of it. But it must make commercial sense."

Elder refuses to give out details of the consumer and business uptake of Vodafone's third generation mobile service, which is currently the only one available within the marketplace. She says it is performing well and cites examples of business and commercial use. The firm plans to spend €1 billion on its 3G network over seven years and has rolled out the service to 60 per cent of the population, she adds.

Vodafone is also investing in another wireless technology called Wi-Fi, which enables people to connect to the internet at very high speeds in hotspot areas such as hotels and airports.

"We do see Wi-Fi as a technology that makes sense, which forms the background to our partnership with BT and BitBuzz recently," she says. "Vodafone customers can now use 2,000 Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide. "

Vodafone is also keeping an eye on voice over internet protocol (VoIP), which enables calls to be made over the internet at far cheaper rates than currently possible, according to Elder, who earned her stripes in the US mobile industry with AirTouch Cellular between 1994 and 1996.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that Elder will face as chief executive is maintaining growth in a more competitive mobile landscape when 84 per cent of people already own mobiles.

"I guess it is a question of the glass being half full or half empty in Ireland," says Elder. "A big difference between the US and Irish mobile market is that penetration here is much higher, but consumers here are incredible as they use their mobiles so much."

This positive attitude is also reflected in Elder's relocation to live in Dublin with her family.

"I think the weather is very pleasant. After all, back in Colorado we often had 20 inches of snow," says Elder, who had never been here before she accepted the job. "Exploring Ireland is one of the things I am tremendously excited about."