Vodafone reports significant rise in smartphone users

DATA USE on Vodafone’s Irish network rose in the first quarter of 2012 as a growing number of customers signed up for smartphones, while the wider group cut sales growth targets.

The operator reported a 59 per cent rise in the number of smartphones on its Irish network compared with the same period last year. Almost 38 per cent of Vodafone customers are now using the devices.

More than one million of the network’s subscribers in Ireland use mobile internet, the operator said, up by 14 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2011.

But the cost to the firm of acquiring customers also increased, as handset subsidies rose. The network saw average blended monthly revenue per user fall to €31.20, a decline of 3.4 per cent.

Compared with the same three-month period last year, Vodafone increased its total customer base by 1.7 per cent, to 2.46 million in total.

About 239,600 were fixed line and DSL customers, a 10.3 per cent increase. The majority, however – 2.2 million – were mobile customers, Vodafone said.

The company said it had invested about €120 million in its Irish network over the past year.

It has also been exploring new products, with the launch of its HD voice service, which claims to give higher audio call quality on its 3G network by cutting down on background noise, and Vodafone One Net, which combines the flexibility traditionally associated with mobile communications and the benefits of fixed telecoms solutions, allowing small and medium-sized businesses to use a landline number on a mobile, and also use some call management features.

On a group basis, Vodafone cut a medium-term sales growth target as customers in southern Europe slashed spending and regulators upped the pressure on the world’s largest mobile operator.

The company took impairment charges of £4 billion relating to its businesses in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Vodafone posted full-year results in line with forecasts and said it expected growth in adjusted operating profit in 2013 as strength in emerging markets and Germany and Turkey offset a slump in Spain and Italy.

But with trading in the two big southern European markets showing few signs of improving and regulatory and foreign exchange pressures due to continue, Vodafone said it now expected organic service revenue growth in 2013 to be slightly below its previous medium-term target range of 1-4 per cent.

Group organic service revenue for the 2012 financial year from the provision of ongoing services to customers was up 1.5 per cent. – (Additional reporting Reuters)