Opera extends Voda deal by three years

Building on the success of the Vodafone-branded Opera Mini browser in emerging markets.

Voda is deeply committed to the cause of mobile web browsing on feature phones in regions where mobile penetration is still growing.

Last year it signed a deal to embed Opera Mini 5 in a range of 20 devices as well as making it downloadable to over 250 GPRS supported handsets in Vodafone's customer base.

The move was backed by flat fee data tariffs, simple instructions in local languages, with intuitive icons to help those with lower levels of literacy.

Partly as a result of this, the number of active users of the Opera Mini browser is up 300 per cent year on year.

“What makes Vodafone Opera Mini’s story special is the role it plays in bringing mobile Internet, along with its social and economic benefits, to the masses, particularly in regions under-penetrated by standard communication services,” said Cenk Sedar, director of data and communications services at Vodafone.