Carphone Warehouses Group Plc

Europe's leading independent retailer of mobile phones and services, with over 2,000 stores in 10 countries. It was founded as a UK mobile phone retailer by Charles Dunstone in 1993.
 
The Group has two divisons: Distribution and UK Fixed Line.
 
Distribution division comprises Retail operations (The group sells mobile phones and network connections through a portfolio of over 2,000 stores spread across 10 European countries) and all directly related business streams: Online (comprises all direct business, selling products and services to customers via a UK call centre and transactional websites in a number of countries); Insurance (insurance service was launched in the UK back in 1994 and is managed through a subsidiary in Dublin); Ongoing; Mobile (The mobile telecom services business primarily encompasses The Phone House Telecom, its German service provider, MVNO operations, and its Facilities Management (?FM?) operations); Non-UK Fixed Line (comprises its Spanish fixed line provider, Xtra Telecom, which the Company acquired in March 2004 and focuses on the SME business market, and residential fixed line operations which operate across Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, Ireland and Switzerland); and Dealer (encompasses a number of non-core operations).
 
The UK Fixed Line division comprises all Carphone?s UK-based fixed telecoms activities, providing a range of services to businesses and consumers over the Opal network. Carphone?s venture into the fixed line telecoms market began in November 2002, when it acquired Opal Telecom Plc, a fixed line, voice telecommunications network provider. The Company launched a new residential fixed line service across the UK in February 2003 under the TalkTalk brand. TalkTalk became the fastest growing CPS service provider in the UK and by September 2005 gained 5% of the UK residential fixed line market with a customer base of 1.06m. TalkTalk?s story created an opportunity to acquire Onetel and Tele2 in December 2005, which doubled Carphone?s market share.
 
The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and its shares are included in FTSE 100 Index (ticker: CPW).]]>