Vodafone adds almost 30,000 customers

25-07-2005

by Deirdre McArdle

Vodafone Ireland is rapidly approaching the 2 million customer milestone after signing up 29,000 new customers in the second quarter.

According to the mobile operator's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it added 26,000 pre-paid customers as well as 3,000 post-paid customers during the quarter ended 30 June, bringing its customer base to 1.98 million. This compares to rival O2 Ireland's figures last week which showed that its customer numbers were flat for the quarter.

Vodafone's Irish customers continue to be among the group's top spenders; blended ARPU (average revenue per user) was EUR609 per year, compared to EUR591 a year ago.

The firm said that average revenue per user, or ARPU, measured on a 12-month rolling basis, came to EUR1,199 for contract customers, up from EUR1,150 in the year-ago quarter. ARPU for pre-pay customers grew to EUR379, up from EUR364 in 2004.

Elsewhere in Europe ARPU figures disappointed. In the UK, Vodafone reported that its customers now spend on average STG300, down from STG306 in the previous quarter. In Germany too customer spending was down, from EUR299 to EUR295, while Italian customer spending increased marginally to EUR360 from EUR359. Focusing on high-value customers in the Spanish market paid off again for Vodafone as ARPU there rose to EUR421 from EUR414.

Adoption of 3G handsets seems to be picking up speed for the Vodafone Group. Over 1 million 3G devices were registered during the quarter, including 1 million consumer 3G devices. The total number of 3G devices now numbers 3.3 million, with 2.9 million consumer devices.

In Ireland the launch of 3G services for pre-paid customers helped to drive the take-up of new products and services during the quarter, the firm said.

"Our experience with 3G services to date has been very positive and we have consistently exceeded our company targets. In the month of June alone, more than one third of our new sales were of 3G handsets," said Gerry Fahy, strategy director with Vodafone Ireland, in a statement.

Overall, the group signed up over 4 million new customers during the quarter to the end of June, bringing its customer base worldwide to over 165 million.

Customer growth helped the group to drive internal revenue growth of 8.6 percent during the quarter. The good performance led Vodafone to restate its full-year guidance for revenue growth of between 6 percent and 9 percent.

"We have seen strong performances across Europe and in the US, and we continue to focus on improving our business in Japan. 3G is building momentum with over 1 million more registered devices in the quarter," said Arun Sarin, chief executive officer Vodafone Group, in a statement. "Overall these KPIs are in line with our expectations and we are therefore reiterating our guidance for the full year to March 2006," Sarin added.