C&W plots global mobile branding

Cable & Wireless is to develop a global brand identity for its 33 mobile telecoms businesses worldwide.

C&W Mobile global marketing director Graeme Oxby says: “We aim to develop a global brand for our mobile businesses building on the strength of the Cable & Wireless brand.

“The businesses will have global branding but we will try to build on local branding, reinforced with the C&W brand. We have to be sensitive to the strength of the local brand.” In Australia, for example, C&W has rebranded Optus as C&W Optus.

In the UK, C&W owns 50 per cent of mobile phone operator One-2-One. Oxby says there are no plans to rebrand One-2-One as C&W, although some One-2-One business already falls under the UK Cable &Wireless Communications brand.

C&W offers a combined mobile and fixed line service to small and medium businesses under the CWC name, separate from One-2-One. Customers for the service have one point of contact in CWC Mobile.

Oxby says C&W will start to create a global mobile brand by establishing a common set of standards in customer service and performance levels.

No decision has been made on whether to put the revamped identity out to pitch.