Vodafone promotes Hoencamp to run British business

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) named the new head of its British operations on Thursday as Jeroen Hoencamp, who will be tasked with managing the group's roll-out of a faster mobile network in its bid to catch up with market leader EE.

Hoencamp, currently the UK enterprise director, has previously run Vodafone Ireland and held a number of marketing and sales roles in Vodafone Netherlands.

He will take over the British arm of Vodafone later this year, replacing Guy Laurence who is leaving to become the chief executive of Rogers Communications Inc (NYSE: RCI - news) .

Hoencamp will inherit a business that has undergone rapid change in recent years, following the acquisition of the Cable & Wireless fixed-line business.

The sector has also been shaken up by the merger of Orange (Other OTC: FNCTF - news) and Deutsche Telekom (LSE: 0MPH.L - news) 's T-Mobile to form the EE group.

EE stole a march on the industry last year when it launched its fourth generation mobile network ahead of rivals. The group now has over 1 million subscribers to the faster network and a significant advantage over Vodafone and Telefonica's O2 which rolled out their own networks in August.