VodafoneThree targets £1B annual savings by 2032

TL;DR: VodafoneThree said in October 2026 that it expects about £1 billion in annual cost savings by fiscal 2032 and said it dropped open RAN in the UK because it could not meet Competition and Markets Authority deadlines for the merged operator's 5G build.

VodafoneThree said in October 2026 that it expects about £1 billion in annual cost savings by fiscal 2032, up from earlier guidance of £700 million by 2030. The UK operator said the savings will come partly from network rationalization as it reduces its combined site footprint to the lower end of a previously stated 26,000 to 28,000 range.

Andrea Dona, VodafoneThree's chief network officer, said the operator abandoned open RAN in the UK because the current technology roadmap would not let it meet the Competition and Markets Authority's deadlines on site numbers and spectrum solutions after the Vodafone-Three merger was approved at the end of 2024. VodafoneThree instead signed a £2 billion contract with Ericsson and Nokia, which Dona said developed radios tailored to the operator's spectrum holdings.

VodafoneThree said its C-band 5G network is available to 50 million people and that it is ahead of CMA targets. The operator said it holds about 200MHz of C-band spectrum and 437MHz across all mobile bands, compared with 360MHz for BT and 326MHz for Virgin Media O2.

VodafoneThree said it still expects to reach 99% population coverage with 5G standalone by 2030, up from 60% in September. The company also said peak capital expenditure will be about £1.4 billion next year, Huawei equipment must be fully removed by the end of 2027, Three's legacy IT systems will be decommissioned by the end of 2028, and more than 200 overlapping retail stores will close.