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London (pte029/25.07.2005/13:17) - The British-based mobile phone company Vodafone Group Plc http://www.vodafone.com attracted 4.1 million customers in the first quarter - the highest customer growth in five years - outdoing analysts' predictions that it would only net 3.1 million.
Strong market performances in Spain and Italy boosted first-quarter figures.
Including Vodafone's acquisition of Czech and Romanian wireless groups, which netted the company another six million customers, Vodafone now has 165 million subscribers worldwide.
Twelve-month customer revenues (ARPU - Annual Revenues per User) strengthened in Italy but dropped in Britain, Germany and Japan.
"The revenue they get is a good deal higher than the costs they incur in getting those customers,'' said Roger Nightingale, a global strategist for Millennium Global Investments in London.
Chief Executive of Vodafone, Arun Sarin, said the company's performance had been strong across Europe and the United States, adding that the group continued to focus on improving its business in Japan, where Vodafone KK is struggling to compete against NTT DoCoMo and KDDI.
Japanese quarterly service revenue fell by 4.1 percent compared to the same quarter in 2004, Revenues from mobile data services, such as video and email services, remained stable. Vodafone Japan recorded 5,000 net new customers in June but posted a loss of 72,000 during the quarter.
Overall group mobile revenues were strong, however, with 8.6 percent growth year-on-year, not including acquisitions.
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