The Telegraph says Sarin’s departure will be formally revealed at the company’s half yearly results announcement later on today, after five years in charge with the operator. Sarin had a rough time a few years back after shareholders attempted to oust him from the CEO role, but he weathered the storm and has proved a safe pair of hands since.

Under Sarin, Vodafone’s gone deeper into emerging markets, talked up WiMax and mobile advertising, got into broadband and mobile broadband alike, tried to reposition itself in the enterprise market and promised to get speeds of over 20Mbps on its network before long. Can’t wait to find out what Colao’s got in store.