how about by bypassing banks, thanks to vodafone, michael joseph, the director of mobile money at vodafone and founder of m pessa, helped third world and developing nations start to pay for stuff. you want to bypass the banks? >> we can't bypass the banks, they are our partners or work with us. we need the banks, most banks integrated the systems into mpesa, you can move money from a traditional account to their account and vice versa. liz: there are stories of people actually taking bags of money, paying a bus driver in nigeria to drive to kenya and give it to their families. they cannot, or haven't been able until mpesa to transfer money quickly. don't you need some type of infrastructure? >> you need a platform and need regulatory permission to do that. it's growing, more and more people are moving money through the mobile phone from one country to another country. many things they're paying for now. liz: what is the most valuable and interesting moment for you. i don't care if you go back a couple of years. when you saw payment between one person and another go through the mobile rail?

by the end of the year vodafone will increase its maternity leave to 16 weeks full pay and incentivizeomen to return to work. >> we think this is really good for our business. as he said there are hidden costs to women not returning to work. >> reporter: the benefits will be rolled out across the 30 countries where vodafone operates. in the u.s. and india and africa women there will benefit most. and actually our women are thrilled that we're doing this. so this makes sense for them and this makes sense for vodafone. >> reporter: but currently, when it comes to maternity pay, the world's biggest economy comes bottom of the list. there are no federal regulations to provide any maternity pay. at the other end of the scale, some of the nordic nations and baltic countries like lithuania, estonia and finland increased their maternity leave. >> there definitely has been progress in the past few years. there are more women in senior management. more women on boards and, you know women actually are more likely to have a degree. >> reporter: but offering women more time off after birth is only

>> yes. >> under vodafone's new policy maternity leave will include 16 weeks of paid leave. when the mother comes back to work, 30-hour work weeks for six months at full pay. worth the cost to retain top working moms, the company says and a bonus whether it come to corporate image. >> i don't know anything about vodafone. i do applaud what they're trying to do. >> women in vodafone's european and many of their global offices will still get even more than that thanks to government subsidies. >> in the u.s. and in india and africa across the world, women there will benefit most and actually our women are thrilled that we're doing this. so this makes sense. >> this government contractor says under federal government guidelines, he couldn't even offer that kind of maternity leave if he wanted to to his employees. but he thinks it's a good idea. >> it doesn't matter if it's father or mother staying home i think somebody should be there. >> pretty much everyone we spoke to said they liked the idea but acknowledge it would be tough in the u.s. to convince employers to foot the bill

vodafone may fund the capital increase. facebook is on the rise.s closed at a record price on thursday, indicating investor confidence in the company's ability to grow advertising. facebook hit $82.75 at the close in new york, giving a market value of $232 billion. at&t is shelling out $40 million in a patent infringement case because it's lawyers did not read a court document. the telephone company missed the deadline to appeal a jury verdict. two-way media claims at&t used it streaming video tracking technology. you can find more on that story and many more on bloomberg.com. >> let's shift gears. the president of the swiss national bank pledge to keep interest rates at a record low to weaken the frank. jonathan ferro caught up with the central bank and asked if further movement in the currency is now out of his hands. quest the international environment has a big impact on exchanges. you have to realize the swiss franc is heavily overvalued against all currencies together with very low rates and negative rates. it makes the swiss franc very unatt

under vodafone's policy, they pay for it. here in the u.s., it is required to get all people needing family medical leave up to 12 weeks of leave. that's unpaid. under current u.s. law, no employer is required to even give one day of maternity leave unless you want to use your sick leave and your vacation leave. so it's something that many people say is much needed here. as that last person pointed out, he's a federal contractor he and couldn't allow it if he wanted to unless the u.s. congress seriously rethought how they offered maternity leave under federal contracting laws. alison and leon i for one think it's an idea worth exploring and we want to hear more from our audience. we'll let them hear some of that as well. for now i'm going to tell you i vote great idea. back to you. >> all right. you mentioned our viewers weighing in on this. we want to share some of the responses we received on our abc 7 facebook page about this maternity leave policy. melanie wrote "i think they should have some leave for the fathers as well

vodafone says this policy will save the company money because it will help with recruitment and retention. beyond the 16 weeks, for another six months you're even if you work reduced hours as you transition from having the baby and the maternity leave to transitioning back to work. >> good way to keep your employees. >> i think it is international women's day this weekend, so the timing of this is tied to that. but you'll hear a lot of discussion about policies in different countries and whether they favor women and families. >> "early start" continues right now. >>> harrison ford in the hospital this morning after crash landing his plane on a golf course. how he's doing this morning. >>> panic on board a delta airlines flight. that jet just skidded off the runway through a fence there. its nose hanging out over the icy bay. we'll tell you how it happened and new details from the survivors. >>> thousands of flights across the country grounded as a severe winter storm barreling across the country, closing schools, paving roads with ice. what you can expect today. >>> good morning, welcome

vodafone, and glglobal company has said from now on every woman that works for them in every part ofld will get not only 16 weweeks of paid d maternity leave but when th come back t work, six months of 30 hour work weeks at full pay. jennifer nycz-conner, realistic in today's day and age? >> it is tougho do, especially 30 hours when you come back. one of the b biggest trouble spots when you come back is for a long time you feel like a fate -- a faure at home e and at work. that will be an interesting ththing to see how that plays out. rebecca: rachel, you have to advisese of the people who run companies. from the bosses perspective, itt is a great idea and the bit summary has to pay for it. rate idea, bad idea? >> it is a great idea. the busininess is vy competitive. we have to offer competitive maternity leave. we have to offer opportunities to work in nontraditional ways. both sides have to be willing to work at it and make it work for clients. >> you are a workiking mom and the boss of a big organization. this is no indtment of my bosses becau it was a union issu i did not get one

we are committed to a sharing agreement with vodafone, which is doing very well.orrect answer to the optimization of the infrastructure in this country. no plans to sell towers in spain. it is something we do in africa like most players, but not europe. caroline: wonderful speaking to you so candidly. talking us through orange in the future. the chief executive of orange speaking to us. talking more consolidation europe and a little but in africa. francine: great interview. non-talks with telecom italia and confirming other plans. guy: we leave barcelona. coming up, we head to the geneva motor show. which is more important to you? your phone or your car. i've had plenty of people saying their car. tweet us. i've had people saying their car. francine: i've had people saying their phone. tweet us. @guyjohnsontv @flacqua. we're back in a couple minutes. ♪ >> not sure if we see russia being such a strong market as it had been last year. on the other side, the united states is an excellent market. the middle east is an shape. you should ever put your eggs in one basket

the first to claim that was a vodafone and you listen to telecom italia and they all have said we are to step up and raise the level of investment. >> how much you have currently and where are you aiming? >> more market share. the core network had the biggest player and most operations are going to invest in the premise to really bring this to the houses and we have many investments to focus the committee on and i said we will play. the good news is that it is coming to us and we are greedy with market share. >> it has been wonderful to speak to you. the ingredient with the market share when it comes to providing the one trillion devices. back to you and the studio. >> and nature of markets after the break. >> welcome back. that is almost it for on the move. 66 minutes -- 56 minutes into the session. the pulse is coming up. >> we are talking to a ceo about the car sector and i cannot wait for the conversation. it will be fantastic. your cousin is coming up and we will be talking to -- and what they will be doing next with wearables. where do they see the story developing? >> looking f

the british phone carrier vodafone says it will offer a minimum 16 weeks maternity leave.ly paid. a study showed that businesses could save $19 billion a year by offering 16 weeks of leave. "bloomberg west" will be right back. ♪ cory johnson: this is "bloomberg west." on monday, the apple watch finally arrived. it's a real announcement of the companies -- company's first new product category in a while. it gives developers a chance to start thinking about what they want to do with the watch. jordon worked with apple. john zimmer is still with us president of lyft, who worked with apple. jordan, let me ask you, when you are thinking about the watch what is the first idea that has to be different? >> you have to keep in mind that it is a second screen. it is not going to have the same notifications you would have on your phone. you cannot put your finger on top of it. you have to build experiences that are catered towards the form factor. that is the difference between a phone and a watch that is small on your hand. cory johnson: the design of the app is so critical. so is t

we see a lot of investment from vodafone driven by their clients and customers.ica building more and more infrastructure and spending money. in that sense we feel good about the economy. this is kind of our strong hold. one of our strong holds and europe is important to us. >> he also announced the cloud. this is a web based interface you can use to get into the server. good for small and medium business. that will be key to getting the goal of half a billion dollars in software sales this year. so when you consider that and you consider the fact that this phone is $275 a mid range phone when you have apple and samsung at the high end. micromax and others at the low end. there's risk here but blackberry is able to mitigate it. >> still have some of the enterprise market as well. >> they do but they need to steal about 7.5 million mobile device management customers. that's a tough road. >> i feel like even in indonesia they still play a dominant role in some of the secondary emerging markets. >> they do. that's an important position for them. that's where the low

>> well, first of all diversity is very important to us at vodafone. 35,000 women employed globally. but only 21% of those women are senior leaders. so retention is everything for us. and so therefore if you think about it for those women that go back to work after maternity leave and that leave vodafone 60% of those women leave in the first year. so it's really important for us to keep them. >> when did this start -- what was this impetus? was there a conversation you had? was it something somebody said? was there an economic analysis you did? >> two points for us. one was the work kpmg did for us. and companies like ours that trade globally have operations in many countries, can save about $19 billion a year by retaining the talent. we no longer have to recruit. we don't have to train, develop. and also the other thing that's important for us is to keep that talent and what they know about our industry and about our business. and the second proof point really is around the fact that because they leave usually in the first year after they come back to

vodafone plans to implement a mandatory minimum global maternity policy that will include 16 weeks ofully paid maternity leave and full pay for a 30 hour week for the first six months after the employee returns to work. coming up a bit later today we will learn the identity of the second big powerball winner from that giant jackpot back in february. there were three winning tickets sold. $564 million prize. but so far only a single mom of four from north carolina has come forward to claim her winnings. we'll see. more halftime after this break. hey, girl. is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now? it kinda is. it's as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. cue the horns... just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrade's rollover consultants. they'll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step by step. and they'll even call your old provider. it's easy. even she could do it. whatever, janet. for all the confidence you need td ameritrade. you got this. tigers, both of you. tigers? don't be modest. i see how yo

vodafone is carrying it.ine and limited distributorship, we have been doing good. >> you have talked about software and bringing blackberry assets to other platforms. tell me what that means and what you guys have that other platforms do not. >> the company has been around for a number of years. a lot of patents supporting it. we think it is time to be able to put it on other devices to expand our businesses. this is different from the past. if you look at blackberry, it is limited. i want to serve the entire spectrum. we were fortunate to have a good partnership with samsung. a couple of days ago, they announced -- paired we were able to add security on it. i think the market will like it. >> you are 10 months into a turnaround. what has surprised you so far? >> the beginning year is going to focus on financial well-being. we are generating a little bit of cash. it is a big change from a couple of years ago. we are executing and delivering phones and software. we are releasing more phones and getting to a po