Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said certain non-core assets would be up for sale at the right price, but is more ambiguous about the value or otherwise of operators buying content to fill out their 4G or quadplay offerings.

The operator would be open to offloading operations in Australia, the Czech Republic and Hungary if the right deal comes along, although the operator is not under any pressure to sell, said Colao (pictured).

“We would consider sales but we are not distressed sellers so therefore we must sell at full value. Otherwise we keep them and manage the cash,” said Colao. His comments were reported by Reuters.

Colao was speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona.

The Vodafone CEO also returned to a favourite theme during his presentation — the question of whether operators should acquire exclusive use of media content for their 4G networks, or as part of their quadplay strategies.

Colao is unconvinced that owning exclusive content makes sense from a financial perspective but relying on a distribution-type arrangement with the actual owner carries a risk.

“Personally I have doubts that in the long run this (exclusive content) will really create a lot of value for the platform,” he said. “But if someone starts bidding for content, then you have to bid yourself because otherwise, prisoners dilemma, you remain out and you lose.”

Reiterating comments he made on an investor call for the company’s recent quarterly results, Colao also cautioned against operators using quadplay packages to cut prices. Such a move harms profits, he said.

On the earlier call, Colao said rival Telefonica had marked down prices in Spain but Deutsche Telekom had not done so in Germany. He made the same point to the conference.

“The level of profitability is different depending on the markets,” Colao said. “I hope it goes the German way, not the Spanish way.”