Vodafone Posts Strong 3rd Quarter Growth

[vodamod]

Vodafone released its 3rd quarter results which took Europe's largest mobile phone company past 150 million subscribers. Vodafone said the result made the company confident it would meet its full-year expectation of 10 percent internal subscriber growth and high single-digit growth in mobile revenue.


The British-based cell phone specialist said it added 5.4 million customers in the final three months of 2004 ? its best quarterly growth rate since the end of 2000. That took the total number of worldwide customers to 151.8 million.

Chief Executive Arun Sarin said the company benefited from continued demand for Vodafone live! picture and video-based phones and the introduction of a faster 3G network in 13 markets.


Vodafone posted its best performance in Spain, where service revenue grew 20 percent and average revenue per user rose to euro408 ($529) from euro400. In Britain, service revenue rose 3 percent but average revenue per user fell to 314 pounds ($560) from 318 pounds at the end of September. It blamed the drop on a regulatory cut to termination rates, the amount mobile carriers charge to connect a call to a rival network.


Average revenue per customer in Germany fell to euro303 (US$393) from euro305, reflecting lower-spending new customers. Service revenue in the region rose 6 percent.


Vodafone did not provide figures on the adoption of its 3G services ? which allows callers to see one another, as well as get faster access to features such as CD-quality music and movie trailers ? but said it was satisfied with progress so far.