Vodafone: Is a better future on the way for customers and investors?

The world's second biggest mobile operator has had a rotten year, but for now, shareholders seem to think boss Vittorio Colao can turn it around

Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao needs to dial up a different tune for his customers (AFP/Getty Images)

Vodafone has dialled up a thumping loss for the 2016/2017 reporting year. The €6.1bn (£5.2bn) total tops even last year's miserable €5.1bn in the red.

Most of this year’s hole relates to a thumping write down to the value of the company’s Indian business, hit with what has been described as a “vicious price war”.

It has forced Vodafone to merge its operations there with a rival in an attempt to compete. Good news for India’s mobile customers, who will enjoy the fruits of this in the form of lower bills.

Britons are in a somewhat different position. There doesn’t appear to be a gazillionaire on these shores with the desire to launch a disruptive new competitor, as Mukesh Ambani did wth Jio in India, at a remarkable speed.

They're stuck with a status quo of four big networks (and remember it nearly became three until the regulators said no) that has been looking entirely too cosy.

This allowed Vodafone to sit back and take it easy. The company forgot that, even though its rivals mightn't be all that much better, you can only push your punters so far before they'll start to hang up.

That, combined with a lot of bad publicity and a regulatory boot, have had to serve as the imperfect proxies for Jio on these shores.

Did I say boot? Vodafone was fined £4.6m in October for a plethora of sins including in-accurate billing, poor complaints handling and mis-selling.

Quite a charge sheet, that should have merited quite a penalty. As it is, while £4.6m might represent a record for OfCom when disciplining a telecom company, in terms of its financial impact on Vodafone it didn't even represent a slapped wrist.

This is a company, remember, that generated €47.6bn in revenue, and turned an operating profit of €3.7bn on that before taking into consideration various one off hits (of which India was just one) that sent it spiralling into the red.

CEO Vittorio Colao has taken action. He's been hiring more people to answer customers' calls more quickly. He says things are improving and says this will result in jam tomorrow for shareholders.

That's how it is supposed to work. Treat customers well and investors benefit. The fact that it doesn’t always turn out like that says a lot about the industry.

For now shareholders are buying into Mr Colao’s story that a shiny new handset is on its way, with a new set of ring tones and a good story or two in the news feed.

Hopefully the courier won’t get caught in traffic.