Vodafone sees customer numbers soar

27-05-2008

by Bryan Collins

Vodafone Ireland's customer base hit 2.33 million as the operator announced its entry into the fixed-line broadband market.

The mobile phone operator managed to add 150,000 new customers in total to its base during the financial year ending 31 March 2008. This growth was fuelled by the inclusion of Perlico's 62,500 customers, after Vodafone acquired the company last November for EUR80 million.

However, it wasn't all good news for the mobile phone operator. Vodafone Ireland saw its average blended monthly ARPU decrease by 1.3 percent to EUR44 from EUR44.60. This decline in ARPU represents a trend across the mobile industry.

O2's most recent quarterly figures, released earlier this month, saw its ARPU reach EUR43.40 at the quarter ending 31 March 2008, down from EUR44.20 in the same period last year. Vodafone Ireland offered the same reason for its declining ARPU as O2 did earlier this month -- it's offering better value to customers.

Vodafone Ireland also reported that total voice minutes used in the quarter increased by 9.3 percent to 1,551 million from 1,420 million in the same quarter in 2007. Text usage increased by 22.1 percent with total texts growing to 936 million from 767 in the same period last year.

The company grew its total Irish mobile broadband base substantially to 75,000 by 31 March 2008, up from 20,000 on the previous financial year. During the last quarter of the year 23,000 new mobile broadband customers signed up with Vodafone.

"Vodafone continues to be the first choice provider for the majority of Irish consumers because the company continues to successfully adapt and deliver solutions that meet the quality, reliability and affordability needs of Irish consumers. This has been borne out in our ability to drive growth in the mobile broadband market and to hold our position as the number one provider in both the voice and mobile broadband markets," said Charles Butterworth, CEO of Vodafone Ireland.

In a move that will see the mobile operator take a further step into the Irish broadband market, Vodafone also took the opportunity to release its Vodafone At Home suite of fixed broadband and phone packages, which will put in direct competition with Eircom. The mobile operator is now offering broadband to consumers with and without landlines from EUR49. This price includes the connection, line rental, up to 3MB broadband (with a 30GB cap), local and national landline calls and unlimited calls to three Vodafone numbers.

"This carefully developed consumer product provides a complete range of mobile, fixed line voice and broadband communications service to customers, both new and existing. Our entry into this market will be welcomed as a significant step in the drive to increase national broadband take-up," said Butterworth.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Ireland's parent group reported underlying pre-tax profits of STG8.93 billion sterling for the year ending 31 March 2008, up over 2 percent on the previous year. The group's figures come with the news that chief executive Arun Sarin is step down at the end of July, after five years in charge. He will be succeeded, as was widely expected, by the current deputy chief executive, Vittorio Colao.