Mobile Phone Reviews
 
 
Vodafone beats forecasts

Tue, 24 Jan 2006

Vodafone remained ahead of O2 as the UK's largest mobile phone operator after reporting a 7 per cent year-on-year rise in customer numbers to 16.3 million today.

The world's largest mobile phone group by revenues, and the UK's fifth biggest firm by market value, said its global subscriber base was now 179.3 million.

Analysts had forecast organic quarterly customer growth of between 5.4 and 6.3 million. Vodafone said its total net customer additions were 8.3 million.

Earnings are expected to be in line with expectations but the company said margins would be at the lower end of its target growth range of flat to minus 1pc.

Vodafone reported an improvement in customer performance in Japan with the highest level of customer additions since the quarter to March 2004.

It said the Japanese market remained challenging but it now had a more competitive handset range, an improved 3G network and a better range of tariffs and services.

In the UK, Vodafone said it maintained its focus on the higher value market with more than 75 per cent of contract customers being on 18-month terms.

The number of 3G devices in the UK increased by 66 per cent from September to 725,000, helping non-voice revenues to grow by 13.2 per cent.

"Vodafone has delivered a good operational performance in a challenging environment. Sales of 3G devices accelerated in the Christmas quarter and we continue to see encouraging take-up of data services," said Arun Sarin, Vodafone cheif executive.

"Our major markets have seen increasing competitor activity. We expect to deliver full-year results in line with our existing guidance and our preliminary outlook for next year remains unchanged."
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